


come away with the flying gang

by Lysical



Series: we're a gang, friends [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Titans (Comics)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Arguments, Artemis has terrible bedside manner, Bickering, Big Brother Dick Grayson, Case Fic, Explosions, Gen, Giant Robots, Injury, Kidnapping, Kinda, Protective Siblings, Roy's Eyebrows, Swords & Sorcery, and doesn't trust Jason's face, author attempts action scenes, field medic!Garth, magic and mystery, necessary superman cameo in Metropolis, no longer canon compliant, protect Garth at all costs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-09-30 17:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10167758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysical/pseuds/Lysical
Summary: From Gotham to Qurac, things don't improve.In fact, they get worse.Each of them has their own enemies and unlike with Black Mask, this time they may need help.





	1. The Labyrinth

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel to a gang, a flight, a colony. You will probably want to read that first. 
> 
> I'm experimenting a little with this one, we'll see how it goes...
> 
> Thanks to Cerusee for the title from The Flying Gang by Banjo Paterson, and Margoshkas for picking this story apart with me and making it better.

_Now_

Artemis ran. An explosion rocked the stone pillars and sent dust and debris falling from ceiling. She ducked around a corner, following the trail of destruction into another identical stone passageway.

Qurac had already lived up to her not-at-all lofty expectations and they'd only been in the country a day.

She found Red Hood slumped against a half demolished wall, breathing heavily and with his left hand clamped over the opposite shoulder. Blood seeped slowly through his fingers and his face was pale and tense. The red helmet was nowhere to be seen.

"I told you not to go off alone," she said, kneeling at his side and pulling his hand away from the wound. "Look what you've done."

"I'm fine." He clenched his jaw and hissed as she prodded at the wound.

"You're bleeding," Artemis replied.

"So? I'm still fine." Red Hood tugged at her wrist, pulling it away from his shoulder.

"When we get out of here I'm buying you a dictionary." Artemis grabbed his hand and squeezed until he grunted in pain and withdrew it. No one had ever accused her of having a good bedside manner. "You clearly have no idea what that word means."

"It means that I'm fine." He tried to shrug her off again but winced when she clamped down on the shoulder. "I just didn't expect chasing this bow to involve a magical fucking mystery tour."

She tugged the jacket off his shoulders and pulled the his body armor away from the shoulder so she could see the wound clearly. It wasn't bad, as these things went.

"Would you stop mothering m—" Red Hood jerked in her grip "—for the love of—"

She dug her thumb further into the wound. "I am not mothering you, and you will cease this childish squirming or I will knock you out and leave you here."

"I hate you so much right now," he said, but finally stopped struggling. Artemis leaned closer and examined the long slice that was cut high on his shoulder. It was reasonably deep and the edges shimmered faintly red—a magical wound. Hardly surprising considering the thing that had attacked them.

"It doesn't appear to be poisoned," Artemis said, sitting back. "So we don't have that to worry about, at least."

"'Let's go into the ruins', she says," Red Hood muttered, rubbing at his shoulder. "'What could possibly go wrong', she says."

"I said neither of those things." Artemis stood up, looking around the dark corridor of the underground ruins. "Where is Bizarro?"

"Fighting that thing, last I saw him." Red Hood pushed himself awkwardly to his feet. "He took it through the roof."

Artemis looked to the hole in the ceiling further down the corridor. The damage had collapsed a pillar into a crumbled ruin that blocked the exit at the end of the corridor. Through the hole she could see a second level with the same dark stone walls, carved with symbols of a language she couldn't read. "This doesn't make sense. There wasn't anything higher than this level when we came inside."

"Magical mystery tour," Red Hood repeated bitterly. He rolled his shoulder and shook it out with a grimace before shrugging his jacket back on. "Let's just find him and get the hell out of here."

She pressed her lips together. She was not ready to abandon her quest for the bow, but there was no point arguing with Red Hood now—at the very least a temporary retreat would be necessary for them to properly evaluate the threat. She frowned at the ripped and bloodied cut in his jacket. "You should tend to your shoulder properly."

"It's fine," he insisted. "It barely even hurts."

Artemis frowned. Lack of pain wasn't a common side effect of magical wounds. Red Hood approached the hole Bizarro had made and stared up it, running a hand through his hair. Artemis glanced around but saw no sign of the bright red helmet. "Where is your helmet?"

"Ka-boom."

"It was destroyed in the explosion?"

He turned and smirked at her. "It was the explosion."

"It wha—" Artemis cut herself off, shaking her head. Of course he kept explosives in the helmet. Of course he did.

"Boost me up." Red Hood nodded to the ceiling.

Artemis grabbed him by the scruff, jacket and all, and hauled him off his feet, ignored the indignant "Hey, no, not like that—" and tossed him roughly up to the next level.

He hit the floor and rolled to his feet, giving her a dirty look as she jumped up to join him. "What the hell crawled up your ass and died, Artemis?"

"What?" She turned to him, sharply. It took everything she had not to grab him and shove him against the wall.

"You've been moody as hell since we got here," Red Hood replied and pushed past her to stride down the hall, following the irregular trail of destruction that Bizarro and the creature had left in their wake. "Get over it, whatever it is, before I frigging shoot you."

"As if you could," she muttered, but took a deep breath. He wasn't wrong.

She was angry.

She was angry at herself.

For walking straight into this trap.

***

_Then_

It had started, as most things did lately, with an argument between Artemis and Jason.

"Look, just because all the records I pulled said the bow is here, doesn't actually mean the bow is here." Jason sat on the railing of the balcony outside their small hotel room, legs swinging back and forth. Artemis stood across from him, arms folded and glaring. Bizarro remained in the hotel room, watching cartoons on the television. They had been banished outside after he'd shushed them several times while they'd been arguing and, the fifth time it had done nothing to stop them, resorted to shoving them both out on the balcony and locking the door behind them.

"The bow is here," Artemis insisted. "I know it's here."

"Yeah, you said." Jason waved his hands mockingly. "'I know it's here, I feel it in my mystical Amazon gut'."

"You walk a very fine line," she warned him, turning to stare out over the small town they'd stopped at, just a few miles outside Qurac's capital city. "We're going today."

Jason had already pulled all the records for the shipments that had arrived the day the bow had been scheduled to. They had a location. Artemis was going to retrieve it, with or without him.

He sighed, legs stilling. "Look, just give me a day. One day to check it out and make sure it's legit. Black Mask went to a lot of effort to hide this thing and then he gave us the information for free. Let's just check and make sure, okay?"

Artemis stared at him. She had already waited too long. Every single minute they delayed further was like a small wound being picked at, growing deeper and larger and bleeding more heavily. Becoming more dangerous.

"No," she said. "I'm going today. I don't care whether you or Bizarro come along."

He sighed. "And here I was trying to be all reasonable. I guess plan 'storm the building' is a go."

***

_Now_

The passageways of the ruins stretched out for what seemed like miles, far longer than what Artemis had seen of the structure from above. She growled and picked up the pace. Beside her Red Hood was keeping up, barely slowed by the wound. She turned the next corner and paused, attention drawn to a hole in the floor that looked suspiciously familiar. She hissed through her teeth. "We've gone in a circle."

"That's impossible," Red Hood said. "You can't turn left and then right and wind up in a circle."

Artemis gestured towards the hole. "What do you think that is, then?"

"A fucking hole in the ground, Artemis, it's not exactly unique." He pushed past her and strode up to where the stone floor crumbled away, crouching and looking down. "Oh, wait. That's my blood down there. Never mind, we went in a circle, carry on."

She cuffed him across the back of the head and moved to study the hall they'd gone down. "This is magic."

"Just what I wanted to encounter today," Red Hood muttered. He stood, wavered slightly and pressed his hand against the shoulder wound again. "It might not be magic."

"It's magic."

"You might be wrong."

"I'm not wrong."

Red Hood snorted. "Oh please, Miss 'Batman is stalking us with his army of children'."

"That was your territory," Artemis replied, with a great amount of patience. "This is mine."

"Your territory is a crumbling ruin?" The little one looked around thoughtfully. "Is this a metaphor for your love life?"

Her neck snapped around so fast she wrenched something. "My _what_?"

"The waitress was cute and you didn't even get her number," Red Hood reminded her. He sounded personally offended about it.

"I'm leaving you here," Artemis announced, turning on her heel and striding off. She ignored both his quiet laughter and the scrambling sound of his boots as he hurried to catch up. Her jaw was clenched tight enough that her teeth were grinding and her palms were sweaty. She was familiar enough with magic, but that didn't make her exactly proficient with it and she'd never been fond of the craft. She didn't like it. She didn't like the entire situation and she especially didn't like that she was in it with the little one, who was injured, and Bizarro, who was missing.

Red Hood finally caught up to her. "Okay, so I guess talk about your love life is off limits."  

"You need better body armor," Artemis said, changing the subject away from things she didn't want to discuss with this child ever. She glanced over. It looked like the wound was still bleeding through the jacket, but Red Hood did not seem the least bit bothered. She narrowed her eyes, raking her eyes over him from head to toe.

"What?" Jason appeared at ease and relaxed under her scrutiny.

"I don't trust your face." Artemis stopped walking, took Jason by his uninjured shoulder and turned him to face her. He cocked his head to the side, stared back at her blandly. "Are you hiding things from me again?"

"Always." Jason grinned, sharp and with too much teeth. "I'm fine, Arty. For real."

Artemis considered him a moment longer, before she decided to let it go. They needed to find Bizarro and get out of here, with or without the bow. She released Jason's shoulder and started walking again. "Fine, but when we get out of here, I'm taking you back to your brother."

They both knew which brother she was talking about. There was only one worth threatening him with.

"Arty, come on." He followed on her feels, voice with just a thin tinge of whine to it that made her lips curl.

She'd won this round.

***

_Then_

"This entire situation screams 'trap'."

"Thank you for your input." Artemis continued walking up the dusty road. The streets around them were deserted. It was peculiar, but not enough to set her off her course.

"I'm not sure you understand," Jason continued, holding up his phone and waving it at her. "This is an industrial area. There aren't supposed to be ruins here. Even this outdated Google street view agrees with me."

"And yet." Artemis waved her hand at the crumbling stone structure just ahead of them. The location of the Bow of Ra. She knew it was there, she could feel the pull.

"Okay, so the 'first to die in a horror movie' award goes to Artemis." Jason turned and pouted up at Bizarro. "Can you believe this, buddy? All my logical reasoning just tossed out the window."

Bizarro pat Jason on the head, the other clutching the red helmet that Jason had yet to put on. "Bizarro listen to Red Him."

"See?" Jason darted in front of her, forcing Artemis to draw up short. She straightened her shoulders to tower over him. "Bizarro agrees with me."

"He always agrees with you," Artemis bit out. "He indulges you like he indulged those children in Gotham—probably because you are a child."

Jason frowned at her. "Hey, I'm totally the big brother of the two of us. He's only been outside his test tube for a week."

"Bizarro am bigger," Bizarro protested, like the pair of them had not had this exact argument for nearly the entire journey from Gotham to Qurac while Artemis ordered drinks throughout the flight and refused to pick a side.

It was time to pick a side.

"Bizarro is years ahead of you in emotional maturity and we all know it," she said. "Congratulations, little one. You're the little brother. Now let us all move on with our lives."

She shoved him out of her way and kept walking.

"I knew he was your favorite!"

Her lips twitched traitorously. Artemis sighed, shoulders slumping, and turned around to face them. Jason stood with his arms crossed over his chest, smirking at her. Bizarro was giving her the sad, soulful eyes that she refused to admit had any effect on her. She put her hands on her hips. "Are you coming in with me, or am I doing this alone?"

Jason snorted. "Fine, let's spring this trap—but don't think for a second that I'm not going to say 'I told you so' when I'm right, because i will. I will never let it go. The day of fiery judgement will arrive, heralded by trumpets and psychedelic angel choirs, and I'll be there to remind you that I was right."

"I'm well aware." Artemis nodded towards the crumbled stone walls. "Come. The Bow of Ra is inside."

Bizarro held out the red helmet. Jason slipped it over his head and her teammates moved to join her.

***

_Now_

It didn't matter which direction they picked, they always ended up back at the same place.

"This is getting creepy." Jason moved close to the stone wall, leaning his ear against it and frowning as he listened. "Maybe there's a secret passage in the walls."

"Because Bizarro is known for his usage of secret passages," Artemis replied. She had her axe now, kept a white-knuckled grip on it and stared around the dark stone hall suspiciously. "Whoever made the labyrinth must have let him through."

Jason huffed. "Labyrinth? Come on it's like four hallways strung together."

"Yes," she replied. "A magical labyrinth. That is what this is. They can be any size the maker desires."

"This barely counts as a maze," Jason muttered, sliding down into a crouch and peering at the bottom of the wall. He looked up at her with a frown. "Where is the loop happening, exactly?"

"At least three different corridors feed back to this one," she replied. If she paid careful attention she could feel the slight shivering coldness of the magic whenever they passed through the loop, but beyond that her experience with magic was not much help. She had never employed such tricks in her own battles. She preferred weapons and brute force to the sly, treacherous nature of spells.

Jason climbed slowly to his feet, staring down the way they'd come. "So the only part of the loop that's always the same is this side." He walked back towards the crumbled area of ground that led to the lower level, occasionally knocking a fist against the stone wall, head cocked and listening. Finally he stopped and starting running his hands over a section of the wall.

"Have you found something?" Artemis asked.

Her answer was the wall giving way suddenly with a shuddering groan. Jason kept pushing and the wall retreated, before finally catching something beyond it with a sharp click and retracting to the side, leaving a passageway clear.

"Oh look," Jason said smugly. "A secret passage."

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Let's just get moving. Bizarro may be in trouble."

The hint of smirk on his face disappeared at the reminder and Jason returned to looking worried. He darted through the passageway ahead of her. Artemis gave the surrounding corridor one last suspicious look before following.

She kept her grip tight on her axe as anxiety bubbled away in her gut.

***

_Then_

It took only a minute to descend the stone stairs into the ruins.

It took only two minutes to look around the small room at the bottom, walls carved with intricate patterns and symbols, to find the door that was the only way forward.

Five minutes for everything to go to hell.

Red Hood was in the lead, Bizarro bringing up the rear. Artemis stayed between them, attention solely focused on the faint ringing in her ears and feeling in her gut that meant she was getting closer to the bow. Then, quite suddenly, both feelings stopped. Artemis froze, looked around the dark hall. There was something familiar about the place. "Wait."

Red Hood turned to her, head canted to one side. "What's up?"

Behind him Artemis could just make out the faint glow of large yellow eyes. "Duck!" she yelled at Red Hood, holding one arm out to call her axe. "Mistress, to me!"

By the time her axe was in her hands, Red Hood had dropped to the ground. Sharp, vicious teeth snapped closed where his head had been moments previous and found her axe instead. Red Hood rolled out of the way and to his feet, pulling out his gun and firing at the monster.

The first shot did minimal damage, not making it through the thick scales that protect its head. It took only a second for Red Hood to readjust and select a more sensitive target. The second shot hit the creature's right eye, reducing the range of vision. Before Red Hood had a chance to completely blind it, the monster roared, reared back on its hind legs and turned, sweeping one of its heavy tails to knock Red Hood aside. Bizarro was there in an instant to catch him.

"What the hell is that thing?" Red Hood demanded, jerking himself out of Bizarro's grip and taking aim again. "And where the fuck is my assault rifle when I need it."

A cold suspicion was creeping up her spine. Artemis forced the monster back a few steps. It snarled around the blade caught between its teeth. Then, with another roar, the beast twisted, releasing the axe and jumping back several feet. It landed on all fours and growled, low and deep.

Scaled hide, gaping jaws lined with sharp teeth, and three thick tails, each topped off with a sharp spine. Artemis had seen its kind before.

It pawed at the ground, clawing deep gorges into the stone floor, and then it charged.

"Fuck—" Red Hood was jerked backwards as Bizarro lifted him off his feet and out of the way.

Artemis widened her stance and braced herself.

It wasn't enough. Her axe went flying out of her grip and her feet slid backwards under the force of the monster's assault. It gave another loud, rumbling roar and swung towards her with one of its front limbs,

"Artemis!"

She grunted under the impact of the hit to her chest, flying back and colliding with the stone wall near the stairs. It cracked and gave under the force. She slumped to the ground, pressing a hand to her chest and coughing.

Bizarro yelled, diving for the creature. It turned and batted him out of the air with one of its tails. Red Hood was shooting again, slowly backing away to stay out of range of its limbs. Bizarro dove at it again, grabbing it by the longest of the three tails and swinging it down the long corridor. The creature skittered on the stone floors, unbalanced from the throw and raking deep gorges into the ground with its claws. It hissed at Bizarro and then turned and ran.

"Bizarro am follow bad thing!"

"No!" Artemis choked out, stumbling to her feet, but it was too late. Bizarro flew down the corridor after the monster and disappeared from sight.

"Are you okay?" Red Hood asked, visibly wavering. He glanced between her and the corridor Bizarro had disappeared through. "I'm gonna follow him."

"I'm fine." Artemis bent over, panting and pushing against the pressure in her chest. She just needed a minute to catch her breath. "Don't go off alone."

"Not alone," Red Hood replied, and took off running. "I've got my gun, I'm good."

"That doesn't—" she gasped, staggered a few steps after him "—doesn't count."

Too late again. He was gone.

"Need a _leash_ for those two," she muttered. The tightness in her chest was slowly easing.

There was an echoing crash from the direction her teammates had gone, and then a cut off scream.

Artemis took a deep breath and started running.

***

_Now_

There was a light at the end of the passageway. It was bright and blinding. Nothing could be seen beyond it.

"Keep moving," Artemis ordered, one hand pushing at Red Hood's back when he hesitated. "It's the way out of this place."

"I have so many 'go into the light' jokes I can't even pick one," he replied.

"I prefer it when you say nothing," Artemis replied. "Keep walking. Stay silent. Our enemies are close."

He snorted but kept moving. "Aren't they always?"

Artemis kept her eyes focused on Red Hood's back as they continued to move forward, keeping her gaze carefully averted from looking directly at the light. Red Hood hesitated on the edge of the wall of light before pushing past. Artemis followed. The second they were beyond the boundary of the labyrinth she twisted her hand into the back of his jacket and jerked him off his feet and shoved him behind her.

A high, cackling laugh greeted them.

Artemis pursed her lips. Just as she'd expected.

They were in a warehouse, large and empty. There was no sign of the ruins—they'd disappeared without a trace. A pale woman in red was standing in the center of the warehouse, smirking at them. Beyond her, the monster had Bizarro pinned the ground. They were surrounded by men wearing suits and pointing guns. One of them, a hulking, smirking figure, held a green stone in one hand.

"Get the hell away from him," Red Hood snarled. She caught him moving out of the corner of her eye and snapped her arm up to halt him. She kept her focus on the woman in red. She was the most dangerous thing in the warehouse.

"Artemis, so nice to see you again."

"Circe," Artemis replied, through gritted teeth. "I find I cannot say the same."

The sorceress smiled, eyes flicking over to Red Hood beyond her shoulder. "My, my. What an adorable little friend you've found."

"What are you doing here, Circe?" Artemis demanded. She had to grab Red Hood by the injured shoulder when he moved towards Bizarro again. He didn't react to her touch.

"A favor for a friend," Circe said, shrugging and snapping her fingers at the creature that still had a weakened Bizarro pinned. The monster disappeared in a cloud of red smoke. "You know I always enjoy disrupting your plans."

"What the fuck?" Red Hood brought the gun up, aiming it at Circe.

Two of the men in suits lowered their guns and moved to drag Bizarro to his feet.

"Don't you dare—" Red Hood moved forward with a snarl, but Circe waved one pale hand in a flick and red bands of magic snapped into existence around the little one and tightened, pinning his arms to his sides more effectively than any mortal restraints. His gun clattered to the ground.

Circe tutted at him. "Stay still, little boy. The monster is going with the nice men, you see?"

"You're one to talk about monsters," Jason snapped, straining against the bands of magic. "What the hell do you want with him?"

Circe looked over at BIzarro, weak and swaying in the grip of the men. "Me? Nothing. He's just a contract I needed to fulfill. My job here is done."

"The Bow?" Artemis asked, fingers twitching at her sides.

"What better way to draw you into my labyrinth?" Circe's lips twitched into a smirk. "Honestly, Artemis, you really are far too predictable."

"Then I suppose you predicted this—" Artemis twisted her hand, called her axe silently and leapt at Circe. The sorceress laughed, moving with blinding speed born of magic and dodged away. Another flick of her hands brought a new monster into existence, a chimera drawn from Circe's own mind and magics.

The men were busy securing Bizarro into a metal box while the one with the green rock looked on. Bizarro struggled weakly in their grasp. "Bad men not hurt Red Him and Red Her!"

The man with the rock snorted. "Our only job here is you, monster."

Red Hood growled, still fighting the restraints. "I swear to God if you hurt him I'll kill you all."

Artemis threw her axe, hitting the new chimera in the chest and sending it sailing back into a wall. It opened its mouth and spat a fireball towards her. Artemis threw herself to the side, rolling onto her back and froze, lips curled in a snarl. Circe stood above her, hands twisting in the air. Sharp red knives of magic hovered between them, pointing at Artemis.

"Stand down, girl," Circe ordered. "You're well outmatched."

Artemis looked beyond her, towards Red Hood and Bizarro. Jason was moving towards the men, even as Circe's restraints held. The men had their guns trained on him.

"Take him to the helicopter," the man with the rock ordered, snapping his fingers towards the four men who'd bound Bizarro. They sealed up the box, leaving only a small window that showed Bizarro's face. One of the men pressed a button on the side. Smoke filled the box. Bizarro's eyes fluttered closed.

"I'm going to kill you all," Jason hissed, teeth bared and rage in his eyes, lighting them up with a wild edge Artemis had never seen before.

The one with the rock—the leader—laughed, tucking the green stone away in one pocket. He remained there with five men while the others started rolling the metal box with Bizarro away. All the guns were trained on Red Hood. Circe and Artemis remained ignored. The leader walked closer to Red Hood, grinning. "Do you care for that monster? Start your mourning now, boy. You're not going to live much longer. You can comfort yourself with the knowledge that your monster friend will outlive you. The doctors want to see what makes it tick before they put it down."

"You're Luthor's men," Jason guessed. "This is his doing. Maybe when I'm done with you I'll burn his empire to the ground, too."

"Threaten us all you like, kid. You're going to die tonight, and the monster will as well—eventually." The man smirked. "It's just going to suffer first."

It was the wrong thing to say, Artemis could tell at once. Red Hood froze up, the wildness in his eyes heightened, becoming frenzied. Above her, Circe gave a soft gasp.

Artemis snapped her head around. The sorceress' face was twisted into a grimace, staring at the little one with astonishment. The red knives were wavering in the air. Artemis frowned and looked at Jason. The restraints were still there, but they were—

A sharp snap filled the warehouse, echoing.

Circe laughed, stumbling backwards. The red knives shattered and lost their form. The magic swirled through the air aimlessly.

Red Hood was unrestrained, the bands of magic gone as if they had never been. He moved. The leader choked, dropping to the ground from a blow to his neck Artemis had barely seen.

"Open fire!" one of the remaining ones shouted. Red Hood swept towards them even as the guns started firing.

"To me," Artemis hissed, and swung her axe at Circe.

The witch dodged the swing, but her eyes were still fixed on Red Hood. She laughed again. "Oh, he is interesting, isn't he?"

The red magic swirled and Circe was gone.

Artemis turned her attention to the men. She came up behind one and cleaved through his gun arm with her axe. He screamed and dropped to the floor, huddled over the stub of his arm.

"Stop your whimpering," she told him. "You'll live. Probably."

The blood loss might get to him before an ambulance did, but that wasn't Artemis' concern. Jason had dropped the last man and was running out the back of the warehouse, the way Bizarro had been taken. She followed him out the door and then slowed. He hadn't gone far.

The helicopter was already in the air, too far for her to reach.

They were too late.


	2. The Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason and Artemis in the aftermath.

"Where are you going?" Artemis demanded as Jason swung around, starting back towards the warehouse.

"To kill them all." His voice was harsh and shaking. "I'm going to kill them all. Then I'm going to find where they took Bizarro and burn it all to the ground."

"Calm down." Artemis grabbed him by the back of his jacket, pulling him to a stop. He jerked away before turning and swinging a fist at her. She caught it in her other hand and squeezed until his bones creaked and he jerked in her grip. "We'll get him back, but you need to _think_."

He started laughing, desperate and humorless. "You don't get it. There's no time. They're going to _hurt_ him."

"Then why are you wasting time trying to kill those men when we should be going after Bizarro?" Artemis took him by the back of the neck and shook him like a puppy. "Calm down. Focus. The rush isn't helping you right now. Let it go."

Jason choked on his next breath, a gasping hitch. Then again on the one that followed. Artemis pushed on the back of his neck until he gave under her grip and sat on the ground, hanging his head between his knees and breathing in short, uneven gasps. "Calm," she repeated, crouching beside him. She kept her hand on his neck until the last of the frenzied panic drained away. Slowly she felt the little one relax beneath her hand.

They remained in silence for several minutes. Artemis kept an ear out in case any of the thugs that remained inside the warehouse came after them.

"Fuck." Jason looked up. His face was pale and drawn, all color washed away; hands shaking as he ran them through his hair. "Did I kill anyone? I don't remember."

Artemis frowned, watched him for a moment, considering. "I didn't check. They hardly matter."

He shook his head, expression twisted in combination of his wildfire anger and an undertone of fear. "They do to Batman."

"I'm more concerned about you." Artemis frowned. "You went berserk because of what that man said. It's a fairly useful trick, but I'm not sure the aftermath is worth it."

The little one snorted, before getting to his feet and shaking his limbs out. "I'm fine. Who the hell was that witch?"

"Circe. She's—” Artemis paused. “Better to be avoided, if at all possible." Circe was not a topic that Artemis wanted to talk about to anyone, particularly not him. She straightened out of her crouch. "She is unlikely to show her face again anytime soon."

"Good.” Jason cracked his neck, moving back and forth on his feet restlessly. “One less thing to worry about."  There was still an air of nervousness to him that Artemis didn't like. His normal behavior was annoying enough without bringing anything unpredictable into the mix. "We need to find where Luthor's taking Bizarro."

"You're sure it's Luthor?" It had been Artemis' first thought, but Circe's presence was making her wonder.

"Yes." The little one kicked at the ground, pulling his phone out and staring at it. "I cleaned up everything, followed all the tracks. The only people who even knew about Bizarro were Black Mask and Luthor-- those guys in the warehouse? They had Kryptonite. That's not easy to get a hold of. The whole thing practically screams Luthor."

"Alright, I believe you." Artemis glanced around. The streets were deserted and she was fairly sure it had been by design. A magical labyrinth of the kind that Circe worked with were not small manipulations of magic. "We need to leave this place."

Jason scowled. "We need to find where they took him. We can't be too late, Artemis."

"We won't be," she promised. It was an empty promise; she couldn't guarantee anything. But the wildness was returning to Jason's eyes and his movements were jerky and agitated. The entire situation was getting to him, and she didn't have any other way to defuse it. "But you do not have the equipment here to track him down yourself. We need to clear out in the meantime. You have access to someone who can find him, yes? Oracle?"

Artemis herself had never interacted with Oracle beyond the security cameras in Gotham that followed her around, but Oracle's reputation had spread far and wide.

"Oracle can do it," Jason replied. "It'll just take time. I- I have someone based a little closer." He stared down at his phone with a grimace and started typing.

"Not someone you can call?"

He laughed. "Oh, we are well beyond that." The little one's thumb hovered over the screen of the phone. His hands were shaking. "I'm going to regret this, I'm really going to regret this—"

He jabbed at the screen with his thumb and shoved the phone back in his pocket.

Artemis could hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance.

Jason looked back at the warehouse, face twisting briefly back to rage before clearing. He sighed. "Okay. We can go."

Artemis led the way. The evening was only just falling and the temperature was cooling rapidly. There weren't many tall buildings in this town; it was sprawling, growing outwards rather than up into the sky. Artemis preferred it to large, cramped cities like Gotham or Metropolis, but it made remaining out of sight and out of notice far more difficult.

The little one kept pace the entire way back despite his injuries, which would be impressive if it wasn't also somewhat concerning. The wound the chimera had inflicted on him was magical by nature and Artemis knew from experience the kind of surprises Circe usually added to her magic.

The first thing Artemis did when they reached the hotel room was shove the little one down onto the bed. "Deal with your shoulder first. I'll pack."

She took the nearest duffel bag and started to stow away all the belongings that were strewn around the room—mostly Bizarro's, which made something in her chest ache and twist.

"Leave the tablet," he replied. "I'm going to book the flights to Metropolis."

Artemis paused, halfway through shoving Bizarro's beloved soft toy into one of the bags. She frowned at Jason. "Metropolis?"

"It's just a feeling," Jason said, shrugging his jacket off and grimacing as he pulled his body armor off next.

"Wouldn't it be better to wait until we have confirmation before moving?"

"We will." Jason pulled his phone out of his pocket and tossed it on the bed beside him. "Soon enough."

***

The calm the little one had maintained in the hotel while they packed didn't last long once his phone buzzed quietly on the bed. Jason jerked to his feet and grabbed it, abandoning the first aid supplies he'd been busying himself with. Artemis glanced up from the tablet; she'd forced Jason away from it to tend to his injuries and it had somehow resulted in him walking her through booking plane tickets.

She was frankly amazed she'd not yet crushed the thing or made it yell at her.

"What is it?" Artemis asked warily, watching as the bright, manic edge returned to the little one's eyes.

He tossed the phone on the bed. "Luthor's only running one shipment out of Qurac tonight. It's heading for Metropolis. Fucking knew it. Predictable asshole."

"Finish with your shoulder, it needs stitches."

He glanced at the cut, shrugged and turned away. The wound made her nervous, it was too deep and bleeding too little. "It's fine, Arty. Can barely feel it."

"The airline will be unlikely to allow you on the flight if you bleed out right in front of them," Artemis pointed out. She looked down at the tablet, ready to confirm the flights that Jason had chosen.

Jason grunted, sat back down on the bed and continued to tend to himself. The absent way his gaze was fixed on the old and slightly rusted lamp on the beside table told Artemis exactly how much attention he was paying to his task.

"Stitches," she reminded him. "Proper ones."

Jason rolled his eyes and continued to use the white adhesive strips that would barely be enough to hold the skin together. Once he was done with that he wrapped the shoulder in a thicker bandage. Artemis was sure it was solely to hide any bleeding for when he no doubt pulled apart the haphazard job he'd made of it. When he was done he looked up and met her eyes. "Are the flights done?"

She blinked and looked down at the tablet again. Very carefully she pressed her finger on the screen to select the options she wanted and then waited while the internet took money from one of Red Hood's many accounts. It chimed happily at her when it was done.

"Yes." Artemis tucked the tablet away and watched Jason bounce on the balls of his feet restlessly. "I booked the flights we need."

"Good." His eyes flicked to the clock on the wall. He kept bouncing. "We should leave soon to get to the airport in time."

Artemis hummed, getting to her feet and making another pass through the room to check that they'd not forgotten anything. "We have time."

Time could not stand up to Jason's impatience and soon enough she found herself herded out of the hotel and into a taxi. They sat in the back with the duffel bags crowding their feet and Jason shifting and twitching every few moments. It made her want to reach out and forcefully still his hands.

The drive was bearable until they neared the busier areas closer to the airport. Artemis was glad they'd left when they had as an accident had caused a traffic jam that saw them spending nearly half an hour in the same small stretch of road.

"If we miss our flight because of this I'm going to kill everyone in Qurac," Jason said, voice low and with an angry hiss. His fingers had gone from tapping against his arm to scratching at his skin.

Artemis rolled her eyes. "You have the patience of a two year old."

"Bizarro needs us."

"I need you to retain your sanity," she replied. "Bizarro is likely unconscious and in transit. Please remain useful and start planning, not worrying about things that don't need to be worried about—and for Hathor's sake, stop _scratching_!"

He looked down at his hands like he had no idea what he'd been doing.

Artemis took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind and not let it go straight to the places she'd just told Jason to stay away from. It was always much easier to impart wisdom onto others than to take it into account in her own life.

She dearly hoped that she was right and Bizarro was simply unconscious and they were not wasting time—

"Now who's worrying?" An elbow caught her in the ribs.

Artemis glared at him. "You are a bother and every day I wonder why I even put up with you."

"Because when the zombie apocalypse comes, you know you want me on your side."

"The words that come out of your mouth don't make sense."

***

The problem with travelling by normal means was that they had to comply with the many and varied regulations of Man's World. Once they were at the airport Jason checked the duffel bags were secured and checked them in. His face was expressionless and Artemis had no idea what he'd done with them, but he'd assured her that no one would look twice at the bags on this side of the world or the other.

"You couldn't have asked for assistance from your father?" Artemis asked lowly, once they'd finished the check-in process. She refused to refer to Batman as anything else when speaking to the little one because it always got some kind of reaction out of him.

Jason wrinkled his nose up. "He doesn't tend to have jets just sitting around in other countries. Doesn't matter how fast some of his private jets are—coming here and then back is going to take longer than just catching the earliest flight out."

"I suggested we take one of them out here," Artemis reminded him. "If we'd done that to start with we could be in the air already."

"I know, okay? I'd prefer that as well." Jason sighed. "Look, it's better that I not sneak into a country in this...area. It's better that I announce my presence by coming through more traditional means."

Artemis was fairly sure she knew exactly what he was leery of and could only shake her head at the life he'd led thus far. How he'd managed to do all the things he'd done in the time he'd been alive she had no clue. "I suppose I should be grateful that ninjas did not descend upon us when we were captured. I'm not sure I want to know what you did to annoy the League of Assassins."

"Stopped returning phone calls," Jason muttered, and could not be prodded to speak further on the topic.

The moment they were through security Jason grabbed the tablet, huddling down in a seat and muttering under his breath. Artemis stood over him and watched travelers as they milled about the airport.

"Our flight is soon isn't it?" Jason asked, looking up and glancing around distractedly before returning the tablet. "Keep an ear out for the boarding call?"

"Of course," she replied. On the seats across the aisle a little girl was cuddling a plush rabbit and grinned at her. Artemis twitched her lips in an awkward attempt at a smile and broke eye contact as soon as humanly possible. If Bizarro were here, he'd had already bonded with the child for life. Instead, he was once again captured and being treated as some kind of experiment. Her fists clenched at her sides and she closed her eyes, taking calming breaths.

"How do you feel about explosions?" Jason asked, not looking up or otherwise acknowledging her, his foot tapping against the cheap carpeting on the airport floor. "I feel very good about them, myself."

"The amount needed to take out the LexCorp building would likely result in significant collateral damage," Artemis replied. "Stick to something a little more subtle."

"You ruin all my fun." The words were light but absently spoken. He was going through the motions as much as she herself was. Jason shifted in place constantly whereas normally he was still and quiet and laser-focused. His movements were normally deliberate things he aimed to get reactions, not something wholly uncontrolled and at the mercy of a disquieted mind. His eyes flicked around the airport, cataloging everyone who came into their vicinity. Normal, for him, but usually he was far less obvious about it and would sometimes even trust it to her or Bizarro's enhanced senses.

His obvious agitation was ramping up her own, causing her muscles to tense and her nerves to feel on edge. It made the lengthy wait that much more tedious. When their flight was finally called Artemis stirred, tapping the little one on the shoulder.

Jason finally ceased his restless twitching and looked up from the tablet. He blinked at her several times. "What?"

"Our flight." Artemis nodded to the boarding gate.

Jason looked over and stared for several seconds, face blank. "That flight is to Bludhaven."

"I know," Artemis replied. She raised an eyebrow and waited.

He looked between her and the boarding gate several times in what seemed to be sheer disbelief before putting his head in his hands. The tablet clattered to the ground.

"Oh for—fuck you."

"I did tell you I would be returning you to your brother when this was over," she informed him, trying to keep her amusement out of her voice. His reaction was worth the utter bother he'd been since Bizarro had been stolen from them.

***

Artemis looked around the quiet hallway. No one was around, all for the better. They had finished a sixteen hour journey and she would happily punch the next person who looked at her wrong.

Jason pounded on the doorway of the apartment with a fist, cocked his head and waited, before smacking it once more even harder. "If he doesn't answer I'm breaking in and getting my stuff back."

The door swung open. Nightwing stood before them, unmasked and bleary eyed, and glared at the little one. "The fuck you are. What the hell were you thinking dumping that in my living room where anyone could see it?"

"What? You don't lock your apartment?" Jason frowned back at his brother. Artemis rolled her eyes. "Look, I just need it back. All of it. Now."

Nightwing frowned and glanced between them. "What's wrong, Jay?"

"I don't need you to be my big brother right now, okay?" The frenzy from Qurac had not been abated by trip back to the United States. Instead it had only served to increase the little one's agitation. "I don't need your lectures or your morals. I've killed people and I need my stuff back so I can go kill some more."

"Fucking—" Nightwing grabbed Jason by the front of the shirt and hauled him bodily into the apartment, nodded for Artemis to come in, and then slammed the door shut behind them. "Can you not say shit like that out in the hallway? You might be running around with the thinnest excuse for a secret identity I've ever witnessed, but I actually have something to protect."

Jason pushed his way into Nightwing's personal space and loomed over him, snarling. He reached up and twisted one hand into the collar of Nightwing's shirt. "Where's my fucking shit, Dick?"

Nightwing frowned, batted Jason's hand away and cupping the little one's face in his hands. "Seriously, what happened, Jay? You look like crap."

Artemis expected his actions to result in violence. The little one had become reluctant to accept touch in the time since they'd left Qurac. But now he just slumped back, shoulders curved inwards and glared sullenly at his older brother. She breathed a little easier. Perhaps it had not been a mistake to bring him here, despite the loud protests he'd subjected her to since he'd realized what flight she'd actually purchased.

"I"m going to kill them," Jason finally said, frowning and rubbing at the shoulder wound he'd barely spared enough attention to bandage.

Nightwing frowned and let go of Jason's face. "Who?"

"Everyone," Artemis said, rolling her eyes. "Luthor's men took Bizarro. The little one is going to kill them, the entire population of Qurac because they had the audacity to have a traffic jam, the airport security for taking too long, me for swapping the plane tickets from Metropolis to Bludhaven without the little one noticing, the plane for existing—"

"Fuck planes," Jason interjected. "They're cramped tin cans of death."

"—the pilot for flying the plane wrong, the entire airline for the order they had passengers disembark from the plane once we landed, and the barista who prepared the little one's coffee. It was 'too hot'." Artemis took a deep, calming breath and glared at Nightwing. "He has been like this since Bizarro was taken, I can't handle it any longer. Fix him."

"If only."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jason snapped, getting right up in his brother's face again.

Nightwing glared back at him. "It means that you haven't listened to a word I've said to you since the day we met, Jason Peter Todd, so go sit your ass on the couch and calm the fuck down."

Jason opened his mouth, and for a moment Artemis thought he might actually be moved to violence, but instead he paused, expression shifting from anger to something that might have been bemused, before stepping back. "Damian has turned you into a total dad, you know that?"

"Yes, you had nothing to do with it." Nightwing grabbed the little one by the shoulders and turned him around, pushing him further into the apartment. "Go sit down."

"I'm only doing it because it's going to invalidate what you just said," Jason replied. "'Haven't listened' my _ass._ "

Once the little one had disappeared further into the apartment Nightwing let out a sigh and ran a hand over his face, making a wordless sound of exasperation. Artemis felt a certain kinship with him. Nightwing removed his hand and sighed. "Is he injured?"

"Shoulder laceration," Artemis replied. "Everything else is minor."

"Right, okay.” Nightwing nodded. “I'll grab the first aid kit. Can you go in there and just—” he sighed “—make sure he doesn't jump out the window and leave on his quest of vengeance?"

"I'll sit on him if I have to," she replied.

She was not in the least bit surprised to find that Jason was not on the couch in the living room. Artemis still found herself caught on the threshold of the room, a brief pang of panic striking up her nerves because she _did not know where he was,_  before she heard rustling from another room. Nightwing had gone in the opposite direction, so Artemis headed down the hall towards the noise. She found Jason in his brother's bedroom, rooting through the closet.

He glanced up as she entered. "I'm getting my stuff and then we're going to Metropolis."

"No," she said. "You're going to listen to your brother."

"A week ago you hated my brother," he replied.

"A week ago you were not doing—" she gestured to his rundown appearance and frantic expression "—all of this."

"I'm fine." Jason turned back to the closet and continued his search.

"You are not fine," Artemis said. "You keep saying that and it grows tiring. At least pick another word to lie to me with. You would be entirely useless to me in combat like this. You haven't even bothered to stitch your injury closed properly. What in Hathor's name is going on?"

His hands gripped the edges of the closet doors, white-knuckled and trembling. "I'm fine."

She rolled her eyes and walked over, yanking him back by his jacket and scooping him up into her arms. He started flailing but was about as effective at escaping as an infant would be. Artemis adjusted her grip and carried him out to the living room and dumped him onto the couch. "Stay. There."

He was breathing heavily, teeth bared like he was about to abandon all reason and try to bite her. She wondered if he was going to work himself up to another frenzy.

Before she could find out Nightwing entered the room, carrying a white box that he placed down beside the couch. He frowned at Jason and sat down next to him. "Shoulder, now."

The little one gave her a look full of betrayal. Artemis raised her eyebrows and folded her arms. Jason sighed and shrugged the jacket off and removed the shirt he wore under it. His chest was scattered with fading bruises and a few new ones, but it was the wound high on his shoulder that needed attention.

Nightwing pulled away the bandaging and frowned. "Why did you use butterfly bandages on this? It needs stitches."

"It was faster," Jason replied. "It's fine. I just. We have to find Bizarro. We've wasted so much time."

"You called Oracle?" Nightwing asked, carefully removing the haphazard bandaging and pulling supplies out of the first aid box to clean the wound properly. Artemis watched exactly what he was doing even if the little one's brother was unlikely to attempt any sabotage. Her own nerves were fraying rapidly the longer Bizarro remained captured.

Ironic, that it was her who was advising calm, when all she wanted to do was charge into battle and let her rage see her through. _Patience, Artemis, patience,_ her teachers had always chided. If only they could see her now...

"Yes, I called Oracle," Jason said, with a frown that bordered on a sulk. "They're taking him to Metropolis, I knew it would be Metropolis. It's Luthor, I"m going to kill him. Just let me go, Dick. I—I need to get to him in time."

Nightwing froze, looking up. "Wait, what? Oh, _Jay._ " It was not quite the reaction Artemis had expected from Nightwing in the face of the little one proclaiming his desire to murder things. Nightwing abandoned his work on the injured shoulder and got up off the couch, ruffling his little brother's hair. He met her eyes, expression tight and worried. "I need to get something, can you finish cleaning that out?"

Artemis nodded, taking his place beside Jason on the couch and continuing where he left off. It would give her an opportunity to examine the wound closely and ensure that Circe had not done anything dangerous to it. Her tricks normally did not take long to materialize, so Artemis did not believe there would be a problem. Still, she would check and make sure.

"We can't waste time," Jason said, once Nightwing had left the room. The fingers of one hand were tapping a beat against his knee.

"I am worried too," Artemis admitted. She tightened her grip on his shoulder. The wound still lacked the amount of bleeding it should logically have and seemed to be closing faster than it should, but she was hardly going to complain about the little one being less injured than he should be. Circe would hardly be responsible for _that_. The red shimmer of magic had faded away, leaving the wound looking superficially normal. She took a breath to gather her words and continued to clean the laceration carefully. "Bizarro does not deserve anything they will try to do. We will get him back and make them pay. At least trust Bizarro enough to hold on for us."

He said nothing, eyes staring blankly ahead.

Once it was as clean as it was going to get Artemis went ahead and grabbed the needle and thread from the kit on the floor and began stitching it properly. "You're lucky the patch job you did on this held."

He grunted but otherwise didn't react. Even her careful stitches did not cause even the smallest of flinches.

Nightwing returned as she was finishing, a cup in his hands. He held it out to his brother. "Drink it. It's tea."

Jason blinked and stared at it. "You drugged it, didn't you?"

"Yup," Nightwing replied. He nodded to the cup. "Drink."

"I don't need sleep," Jason said. "I need to get Bizarro."

"And doing that without a plan is going to go swimmingly," Nightwing said. "You need to calm down and get your head together. Drink the tea, take a nap. I'll handle prep, okay?"

Jason shook his head. "You can't make me."

"Seriously, Jay, your logic has devolved to the level of a toddler." Nightwing pushed the cup into the little one's hands. "Drink the tea or I _will_ make you."

Jason glared at the cup in his hands and didn't move.

"I'll call Alfred," Nightwing added.

"Fucking cheater," Jason muttered and drank the tea. He winced, head tilting to drain the cup before pulling it away. "That's disgusting. How can you ruin tea?"

"By adding drugs to it," Nightwing replied easily. He took the cup out of his brother's hands and set it aside. "Just relax, okay?"

"I hate you," the little one muttered, almost too low to make out, and slumped over and buried his face against the arm of the couch. All the tension and fight went out of him in a rush. He reached one hand out and pointed in her direction. "Arty? I told you so." The arm slumped down as his breathing slowly began to even out.

Nightwing watched Jason for a minute before shaking his head and turning to her. "What happened? Don't leave anything out."

Artemis thought over the last two days and wondered where to even start.

***

The drug-induced nap seemed to return the little one to normal. He refused to discuss what he'd termed his 'minor unraveling' but at least Artemis now knew that if it ever repeated she could just knock him unconscious to make it go away. Once he'd stirred awake he was still a swirl of energy, however the manic edge had given way to determination and actual planning.

"Where's my C4?" Jason demanded, hunting through the pile of weapons and assorted other munitions that Bizarro had dumped off at Nightwing's apartment, back when they'd first left Gotham. "Did you seriously get rid of it already?"

"It's at Titans Tower," Nightwing replied. "I gave it to Roy. Figured you wouldn't mind."

Jason paused, looking up. "You trusted Roy with that much C4?"

"I trust Roy with C4 more than I trust you with it," Nightwing said.

"I'll remind you of this when your tower is a smoking ruin."

Nightwing watched as the little one assembled his weapons and sighed. "Jay, I'd like to say that I'm perfectly fine with you running off to declare war on Lex Luthor."

"You'd like to say, huh?"

"Yeah, I'd like to."

"But?"

"But." Nightwing rubbed his eyes. His face was drawn and closed off, but there was still a certain tension to him that she could read as worry. He had that in common with the little one. Nightwing shifted, linking his hands together in his lap. "But you are my very precious little brother and if you actually think I'm letting you out of this apartment to go storm LexCorp with just yourself and your Amazon buddy, you have another thing coming."

Artemis scoffed. As if Nightwing could stop them if they wanted to leave.

"You can't stop me," Jason replied. "I'm an adult, remember? I'm allowed to make all my own bad decisions, without you or _him_ having input."

"See, you'd have to legally exist to be a legal adult," Nightwing replied. Jason's mouth quirked briefly before he refocused his expression back to a stubborn frown. Nightwing grinned like he'd won something. "And I feel like it's a sliding scale, you know? At eighteen you can vote, at twenty-one you can drink." Nightwing's expression turned grim and serious. "When my body is cold in the ground you can go take on Lex Luthor."

"That can be arranged."

"You're injured, Jay, I think I can take you." Nightwing rolled his eyes. "Look, I can come with you, call up the Titans. You know Roy would help you out in a heartbeat."

"No," Jason replied, immediately. It seemed to Artemis to have been a reflexive response. "I don't need your help."

"Bizarro needs help," Artemis corrected him. She'd remained out of the argument until now, but she would not allow stubborn pride to dictate the terms of their rescue attempt. "We will do whatever is necessary to retrieve him."

"Can we do whatever is necessary without bringing my big brother along?"

Artemis looked between them. Nightwing was unreadable, face passive and composed even without a real mask. Jason was still somewhat unsettled, despite his calmer demeanor. His arguments with his brother aside, he had yet to walk out and leave.

"We will accept your assistance," Artemis said to Nightwing. "Call up your 'Titans'. I want Bizarro returned safely and LexCorp left a crumbling ruin."

Nightwing nodded, getting up off the couch and taking out his phone.

Jason sighed. "You know this means Donna's going to be there, right?"

Artemis shrugged. "If I can put up with one of Themyscira’s princesses, you can put up with your brother."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some last minute edits in this one, hopefully nothing weird slipped past my notice.


	3. The Descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a plan. Now they just need to pull it off.

Nightwing acted fast. Within minutes of Artemis agreeing to work with his team he had made contact and begun coordinating. Artemis could still hear his voice, low and muffled through the wall. He was in the living room, but Artemis had followed the little one when he'd retreated into his brother's bedroom. Jason sat on the floor, back resting against the bed, busy taking apart one of his guns.

"Will you be able to work with them?" Artemis asked.

"Yes." His eyes flicked up from the gun, meeting hers. "I can play well with others when I want to. What about _you_ , Arty?"

"If I can put up with you and Bizarro, I can put up with anything."

He smirked. "Even Nightwing bossing you around?"

She drew a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly. "I'll manage. This is only a temporary alliance."

"Hear, hear," Jason muttered.

The door opened and Nightwing stuck his head into the room. "Hey, Jay, helmet?"

Jason shook his head.

Nightwing grimaced. "I'll get you a domino. Jet will be here in thirty." Nightwing started closing the door but paused, frowning. He leaned further into the room. "You're wearing your plotting face."

Jason looked away. "I'm always plotting."

"If you think up something, please share with the class," Nightwing replied. "I don't like unexpected surprises on the job."

"Live a little," Jason said.

Nightwing rolled his eyes, ducking back out of the room and closing the door behind him.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. "You've thought of something?"

"Nothing important." Jason started assembling the gun, hands quick and sure. "Nothing for you or big brother to concern yourselves with."

"When you say that it only makes me more concerned."

He looked up at her with a smirk. "That's what makes it fun for me."

"Brat." Artemis retreated from the room, leaving him to his thoughts. It wasn't necessarily a bad idea to let him think up some alternate plans. The most important thing was getting Bizarro back and if they had to go rogue to do it Artemis wouldn't think twice. It was the least she owed him for getting them all into this mess.

She found Nightwing digging through equipment in the living room. "Did you say that a jet was coming here?"

He glanced up, nodding.

"This is an apartment building," Artemis said.

Nightwing shrugged. "It's an invisible jet."

"Invisible jets still make sound."

"This is Bludhaven," he replied. "No one pays any attention to weird sounds. But there's actually an airfield close by, so they're really landing it there."

Artemis watched him digging through the pile of equipment. It seemed to mostly consist of the small metal weapons that Batman and his operatives favored, with some masks and other odds and ends mixed in.

"Thank you," she finally said, grudgingly. "You did not have to offer your help, or your team."

Nightwing stood up, a red mask clutched in his hand. "Of course I did. Jay's my brother and Bizarro needs help."

"This doesn't mean I won't punch you in the face one day."

He laughed. "Okay. I'll be sure to stay prepared."

There was a bang from the direction of the bedroom and then Jason was stumbling into the room. "Dick, do you have any voice recorders?"

"Separate from the comms? I have bugs, but that's about it."

Jason swung around and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" Artemis demanded. "We're leaving soon."

"I'll be back," he called, throwing the door open and sprinting out into the hall.

Nightwing sighed. "He's plotting something."

Artemis walked over to the window that looked out over the street below. Sure enough, she could see the little one running down the street as if the hounds of the underworld were after him. "I trust him to get Bizarro back by any means necessary."

"Yeah," Nightwing replied. "That's what I'm afraid of."

***

"Everybody knows what they're doing?" Nightwing asked.

Once the plane had taken off and was safely on auto-pilot Nightwing had taken charge and laid out the plan they'd agreed on. Artemis might have been tempted to resent Nightwing for taking over Bizarro's rescue mission if the little one hadn't been as quiet and docile about it as he was. She was well aware that he had plans ticking away in his head, and if it suited him to follow his brother's lead then Artemis would accept it.

For now.

"I have a question." It was the red haired man with the bow who'd spoken, the one who'd introduced himself to her as Arsenal. The minute they'd boarded the jet he'd handed a new red helmet over and draped his arm over the little one's shoulder and not moved since. "Has anyone else noticed how many red heads are present? This is just statistically unlikely."

"Arsenal!" both Red Hood and Nightwing snapped.

Arsenal took his arm from around Red Hood's shoulder and held his hands up. "Okay, I'm out. I can't handle two Bats in stereo. I think I had a nightmare about this once."

"Roy," Donna Troy said, tone chiding, but Artemis could see the amusement in her eyes. "That's enough."

"We're taking on Lex Luthor," NIghtwing said. "We have to be at the top of our game."

The other red haired man, the one who called himself the Flash, snorted. His foot was tapping against the floor at blinding speeds. Artemis eyed him warily. "We're not believing his 'I'm totally a good guy' thing, then?"

"He's said that before," Nightwing replied. "The fact that people keep believing him shows just how dangerous he is. We're going in quietly, getting Bizarro out, and getting the hell out of dodge. No one gets caught, no one faces Luthor, and—I really stress this part—Superman does not get involved."

"This is starting to sound a lot like some of the shit we did at sixteen," Arsenal said. "Let me guess, Batman wouldn't approve, either."

"When has Batman ever approved of anything we've done?" The Atlantean sorcerer asked, shrugging. He gave off a hint of magic, much as Circe did, but felt warm where the witch was cold. Tempest, they called him, despite the calm he exuded. "I'm fairly sure 'Don't tell Batman' is still rule number one."

"Seriously?" Red Hood asked. "You guys are dorks."

"I remember when you were barely five foot tall and wearing pixie boots," Tempest replied. "I wouldn't start, tadpole."

Arsenal started laughing while the little one just shrugged, inscrutable under the replacement helmet. "To be fair, that atrocity was inherited."

Nightwing sighed and rubbed his head. "Moving on," he said pointedly. "Tempest, Omen, you're both good to go?"

The cloaked woman who’d remained silently at Donna Troy’s side nodded. "We're ready when you are."

***

"I've had a thought." Arsenal's voice was audibly amused even over the communicator.

"Shocking," Red Hood muttered. He was crouched down in front of the security door on the rooftop of one of LexCorp's secure facilities. Artemis stood behind him on lookout.

As soon as the jet had reached Metropolis, Flash had dropped Tempest and Omen off near LexCorp's building, leaving the two of them to use their skills and powers to break in and track down Bizarro's location. Once they had it, the rest of them had quickly moved into position.

"I feel our teams are unevenly distributed," Arsenal continued. "Robin One and Wonder One are paired together and they don't have a red head."

"Arsenal," Nightwing cut in, voice hard and reminiscent of Batman. "Cut it out."

"Why is it that you Bats always lose your sense of humor in team environments?" Arsenal gave a deep sigh. "Jaybird, remember who you are, don't give in to the Bat."

"Names," Nightwing and Red Hood said together.

Arsenal snickered. "Okay, Flash and I are in position. How big a distraction do you want, Nightwing?"

"If Superman shows up, you'll know you've done well," was the reply.

"Oh boy, it's going to be one of those days, then."

Red Hood had connected a small device to the security system and was working on disabling it. Occasionally he would speak to Nightwing over the comm line, but otherwise Artemis was subjected to the inane drivel of Donna Troy's closest friends.

"Tempest and I will monitor from inside the LexCorp building," Omen said. "I'm sure Luthor has a lot of interesting stuff and if security catches us, well, you'll probably need all the distractions you can get."

"Be careful," Nightwing replied. "'Titans break into LexCorp' isn't a headline we really want to see. Cause a distraction only if everything goes to hell."

"You got it."

Distraction was the key element of their plan. Lex Luthor was not a man to be trifled with—he was Superman's greatest enemy and he was a normal human with no powers. Sneaking Bizarro out from under his nose would take more than just stealth and an ability to hack into his security network.

While Tempest and Omen had been directed to LexCorp itself, and would remain there to keep an eye on Luthor and his movements, Flash and Arsenal had been dispatched to one of LexCorp's facilities just outside of Metropolis proper. It was a laboratory that they had already suspected was a front for one of Luthor's dubious science experiments and thus the perfect opportunity to distract both Luthor and Superman and not give the game away.

"Alarms are ringing, fires are raging," Arsenal reported. "Distraction is underway. Hey, if Superman shows up too soon, what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Nightwing replied, which earned him a muffled curse from Arsenal but no further protests. "Okay, Hood. Troia and I are ready this side, you good?"

"Yeah, I got it." The device in the little one's hands gave a beep and then he leaned forward and opened the rooftop access door. "We're in."

"Alright, no more chatter, team."

Red Hood straightened up, tucking the device away in his jacket and nodding for Artemis to proceed. She slipped through the door and looked around the stairwell, eyes catching a security camera in the corner.

"Cameras?" Artemis asked quietly.

"Nightwing is taking care of them," Red Hood replied. "Let's move."

The stairwell only went down three floors, to the ground floor of the facility. They would need to find the elevator that accessed the basement levels, which was where Omen and Tempest had discovered Bizarro had been taken.

The benefit to breaking into the facility during the day meant that while there were more personnel around, the amount of technological security was far lighter than at any other time. As long as Red Hood was able to get them through the security doors and they avoided the workers, getting down to Bizarro's level would be easy.

By having Nightwing and Troia go straight to the security room, they would hopefully leave minimal traces of their break in.

Now all they had to do was find Bizarro and pull it all off.

There was no security on the door that connected the stairwell to the facility's main hallway, but according to the blueprints that Tempest and Omen had found it was one of the main thoroughfares for the building. The amount of foot traffic was likely to be high and there was no way for her to tell before she opened the door how many people might be out in the hall.

No way for her, anyway.

Artemis put a hand on the doorknob and turned to Red Hood, raising a brow. His gaze was directed at the door and Artemis wasn't sure what exactly the helmet was picking up—whether sound, heat signatures or something else—but when he finally nodded, she turned the knob and pushed the door open, slipping out into the hallway.

The hallway was bright, with fluorescent lighting and white walls, no decorations or adornments. A clean, sterile environment fitting for the medical research facility that was a front for some of Luthor's more dubious work.

Artemis turned left and made for the security door at the end of the corridor. She could hear Red Hood behind her, close on her heels.

A muffled noise came from behind, along with the rattle of a doorknob turning. Red Hood was already pulling her into a nearby storage closet, closing the door quietly behind them. Artemis stayed close and remained quiet. If she listened carefully she could hear a mechanical whir as the helmet's technology worked away.

"We're in the security room," Nightwing reported across the comms. "All the doors between you and the elevators are unlocked."

"That should cut down some time," Red Hood replied. "Cameras?"

"No longer recording. We'll meet you down there."

"You got it."

They waited in silence for another few minutes. Artemis could hear faint voices and the echoing click of shoes against the tiled floors of the corridor. Red Hood stayed still and tensed beside her before finally nodding. "We're good."

They quietly left the storage room behind, Artemis back in the lead. Stealth was not one of her strengths, and it was only the lingering thought that Bizarro may be killed that kept her silent and cautious as they continued to the elevators. The security doors were unlocked just as Nightwing said they would be, which meant they did not need to linger and wait for Red Hood to break through them.

"There's movement at LexCorp," Omen reported over the comms. "Arsenal, Flash—looks like reinforcements are heading your way."

"Joy," Arsenal replied. "Superman hasn't appeared yet, do I need to set off some of your little brother's C4, Nightwing?"

"Red Hood and Artemis aren't at the elevators yet," Nightwing said. "Make some noise, Arsenal."

Artemis kept her senses on alert as they quickly and quietly made their way to the elevators. Four more security doors opened without issue, and then they were staring straight ahead at the shiny metal doors that led down to the basement levels.

Red Hood moved ahead of her and looked around the hallway. It was as deserted as the rest had been. "Nightwing, we're at the elevators, but this felt a little too easy. I was expecting more foot traffic."

"Nothing out of the ordinary on the cameras," Nightwing reported. "Stay alert, the cameras up here don't have any visual of the basement levels. That's where a trap would be."

"Of course." Red Hood sighed. He pressed a button on the elevator, which slid open smoothly a few moments later. "Too easy. Artemis, axe?"

"She's always ready," Artemis replied.

"We're going down now," Red Hood said, for the benefit of the rest of their temporary team.

"Troia and I will be right behind you," Nightwing said. "We're leaving the security room now."

The elevator was small and cramped. Artemis felt twitchy in such a confined space. Red Hood remained eerily still and quiet, a distinct contrast with the nervous agitation of the day before. She hoped it meant he was focused. She did not want to have to babysit him and rescue Bizarro at the same time.

"Do we know what level Bizarro is on?" Artemis asked.

Red Hood shook his head. "Omen and Tempest couldn't find out. It doesn't really matter. The elevator only goes down to the first basement level. It's the only floor on the official blueprints."

"How Man's World is stupid enough to trust Lex Luthor I'll never know," Artemis muttered. She knew of at least three occasions that Luthor's moral alignment had flip-flopped based on convenience.

The elevator slowed to a stop. Artemis tensed, stepping in front of Red Hood and holding her arm out, ready to summon her axe. The doors slid open, revealing a long corridor with the same tiled floors and white walls as the rest of the facility.

No one was waiting for them, ready to spring a trap. Artemis relaxed fractionally. Red Hood moved ahead of her out of the elevator and looked around the hall.

"No trap on the first level," he said. "We're going to sweep the place quickly and get down to the next."

"We'll give it another look when we get down there," Nightwing replied.

"I don't like this," Artemis said quietly, following in Red Hood's wake as he made his way down the corridor and started peering into rooms. All of them were empty, identical laboratories. A cover for what lay below. "If this is the last thing between Luthor's respectable research facility and his illegal experiments, you would expect better security."

"Agreed," Red Hood replied. "This entire situation is running around in circles and crashing cymbals together while screaming 'trap' at me."

"They've cleared the area so nothing gets in our way." Artemis held out her hand and silently called her axe. The extra weight and size of it was negligible. She was convinced now that Luthor had something waiting for them. "He knows it's us, little one. He found Bizarro in Qurac, he knows who was travelling with him."

"Luthor's not a stupid man," Red Hood agreed. He walked right past the next the door and didn't bother checking it. "Bizarro's not on this level. We're going further down and I think it's time we forgot this 'stealth' thing."

"We can't be completely sure," Artemis said, but followed behind him and didn't attempt to mask the sound of her footsteps any longer. "We don't want to risk Bizarro."

"Luthor didn't drag him all this way to kill him," Red Hood replied. "Not yet. He needs something from him first. We have time."

Artemis hoped so, for Luthor's sake.

If Bizarro was harmed, there wasn't a man, Superman or God alive who could stop her from ripping his head from his shoulders and displaying it on a pike for all of his city to see.

The corridor ended in another security door. This one was locked. Red Hood stood aside and nodded to her. Artemis grabbed the handle and crushed it, shoving the door open and leaving it hanging, a mangled mess. There would be no hiding their break-in now.

The hall beyond the security door was dark, dimly lit and contained only an elevator.

"Well, this came straight out of a horror movie, didn't it?" Red Hood moved towards the elevator and pressed the button to open it. The doors slid open immediately.

"We're at the elevator to the basement levels now," Troia reported over the comm. Red Hood shoved his foot between the doors as they began to shut. "It's locked down. Nightwing is working on it but we'll be delayed."

"Well, that's really all the confirmation we need, isn't it?" Red Hood said, shoving his way into the elevator. "Let's go spring a trap, Arty."

Artemis rolled her eyes and followed him in. The doors shut behind her, leaving the elevator buttons as the only source of light.

"Do you think he shut the lights off deliberately to set the mood?" Red Hood asked. "It seems somewhat impractical."

He ran his fingers along the elevator controls, jabbing one of them with a thoughtful hum. It lit up red, the letters KR instead of floor numbers.

"Interesting name for a floor," Artemis said.

"Convenient for us," Red Hood replied. "Guess we're playing Truth or Trap."

The elevator shuddered to a halt. The doors opened, revealing another dark and empty hallway.

"Well, which is it?" Artemis asked.

"Too soon to tell." Red Hood stepped out of the elevator. "Nightwing, Troia, how are you two doing?"

There was no response across the communicator. When Red Hood twitched his hand up to the helmet to fiddle with the settings, the only result he got was a faint crackling that Artemis could hear across the comm line.

Artemis raised an eyebrow and hoisted her axe over her shoulder. "Trap it is, then."

"I was kind of hoping," Red Hood replied. He pulled one of his guns out of its holster and held it ready. "I got some aggression to work out."

"Lead on," Artemis said. "You can see better with the helmet."

Red Hood moved forward, taking the lead and starting down the hallway. He threw open every door they passed, but much like the ones in the above floors they were mostly dark and empty. "I'm starting to think this place was abandoned a while ago."

"Why bring Bizarro to a closed down research facility?" Artemis asked. She remained out in the hallway while Red Hood searched the rooms, alert and clutching her axe tightly in her hands.

"This is probably where he was made," Red Hood replied. "Black Mask said Luthor was trying to destroy the evidence when he stole Bizarro. This is probably the only place set up to handle a Kryptonian clone."

"If it is abandoned, our job will be easier."

Red Hood grunted. He began to speed up his searches, barely glancing in a room before moving on. Artemis followed behind and tried to control the part of her that wanted to start ripping things apart until she found Bizarro. Her patience was fraying like a thread stretched too thin.

"We're missing something," Red Hood said. "These labs are all the same but there's no equipment in them that looks remotely like something you'd grow your own Kryptonian in."

"Shall I start destroying things?" Artemis asked.

Red Hood looked down towards the end of the hall. "Maybe. Hold that thought."

He approached the end of the corridor. This one was a dead end, a blank white wall. Red Hood tucked his gun away in its holster and ran his hands along the wall.

"Secret passage?" Artemis asked.

"Something like that," Red Hood said. "Knock it down."

Artemis raised a brow but kicked out sharply. Her foot hit the wall and went straight through, the wall giving way easier than she expected. "They blocked off the hallway? That seems inconvenient for them."

"We're being led somewhere." Red Hood kicked the wall himself. It was short work clearing a hole in the wall big enough for them to go through. "Either they're just trying to slow us down some or this is part of the trap."

"I despise mind games."

"We're missing something." Red Hood looked around. They were in another empty corridor that led nowhere. He walked back through the hole they'd made in the thin wall and searched the area around the wall.

Artemis cocked her head, picking up a faint hissing noise. "Hood, do you hear that?"

He stopped what he was doing and reached a hand up to the helmet. "Yeah. It doesn't sound good,"

"I smell something," Artemis said, taking a deeper breath. "Something must be leaking."

Red Hood cursed, ducked back through the wall to grab her arm and tugged her sharply back out into the corridor. "Trap, definitely a trap. Elevator, now!"

Artemis dropped her axe and dashed off to the other end of the corridor, leaving Red Hood in her wake. The helmet would protect him well enough until he reached the elevator. It only took her a few seconds to get to the end of the corridor. She pressed the button to open the doors but it failed to respond. She was somehow not surprised. She glanced behind her as Red Hood skid to a halt. "What kind of gas is that?"

"Nothing good," Red Hood replied. "Open it up, Artemis, we're going further down."

She had to crush the metal doors to make enough of a gap to get a proper hold on each and start prying them apart. The gas was growing thick enough that she could taste it now, sweet and tingling in her throat. She had to fight the urge to cough. The doors did not put up much of a fight, giving way under her strength. The elevator itself was gone, which suited her just fine.. Artemis ducked her head into the elevator shaft and took a proper breath.

"Let's move," Red Hood said, nudging her in the back. "Take the cable down."

Artemis nodded, carefully reaching into the elevator shaft and taking the cable, swinging out from the ledge and wrapping her legs around it. Once she began to descend, Red Hood fired his grapple gun and dropped past her, until all she could see was the faint red of the helmet.

"Found the next floor," he called, voice echoing in the dark elevator shaft.

Artemis grimaced and started to carefully slide her way down the cable. The wrappings around her hands and arms helped keep her grip sure, but she still felt like at any moment the cable would slip through her fingers and send her plummeting to the bottom of the tunnel.

A screech of metal against metal came from above. Artemis jerked her head up, seeing only darkness, but heard the rushing of displaced air coming rapidly closer.

"Is that what I think it is?" Red Hood asked.

Artemis couldn't waste the time responding. She looked around for something to brace her legs against and found nothing. With a grimace she loosened her grip on the cables and slid down rapidly, the wrappings around her hands tearing and smoking from the friction. When she saw Red Hood suspended next to a ledge that led to another floor she kicked out with her feet and slid them apart, braced firmly on the thin ledge.

"Go down further," she ordered.

Red Hood obeyed. Artemis looked up at the rapidly approaching elevator car and raised her right arm. The left she needed to keep wrapped around the cable to keep from falling backward off the ledge.

"Artemis—"

She drew her arm back and then threw her fist forward to meet the car with all the force she could manage to generate in such an awkward position. Hot, sharp pain exploded through her arm like fire rushing through her veins. She screamed in rage and pain and forced herself to hold. The bottom of the car crumpled under the force of her fist, momentum lost. Artemis took a deep, shaky breath. The angle of her punch had crushed one side of the car up on a slant, warping the sides and sending the far left side into the wall of the tunnel.

If they were lucky, it would hold long enough to get let them escape.

"You okay?" Red Hood called.

"Get the doors open," Artemis ordered, grimacing as her voice came out thin and cracked. Red Hood scrambled up onto the ledge beside her, stepping over her right leg and between her body and the door. She focused on breathing and ignoring the throbbing fire running up and down her arm as he worked on prying the doors apart. Her left hand began to slip on the cable.

With a grunt, Red Hood forced the doors apart and stepped through, turning and holding a hand out to her.

Artemis took a deep breath, shifted her feet into a better position against the ledge and removed her fist from the bottom of the elevator car, reaching for the little one instead.

The car gave an ominous creak. Red Hood got a firm grip on her hand and pulled. Her vision darkened as a fresh jolt of fire raced up her arm.

Artemis jerked her eyes open just as there was an echoing boom as the elevator car hit the bottom of the shaft. Hands gripped her sides. She looked down to see the little one holding her steady.

Her right arm lay limp at her side, throbbing like she'd doused her nerves in lava.

Red Hood stepped back, releasing her. "You kinda passed out."

Artemis grunted. "I hadn't gathered."

"Anything broken?"

"I'm not that fragile." Artemis flexed the fingers of her right hand. Her grip was weak and shaky, even as the fire running up her arm began dimming to a manageable discomfort. She was far more durable than a normal human, but that didn't make her invulnerable.

Artemis looked around. The corridor beyond the elevator was both wider and taller than any on the previous floors, and was dimly lit by small lights lining the floor on either side of the hall.

"This looks promising," Red Hood said.

A deep chuckle echoed through the hall. "You walked a little too easily into this trap, kids."

Deathstroke the Terminator stepped forward out of the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am a tiny bit sick this weekend, so i'm not trusting my editing skills. Hopefully nothing too weird, I'll correct anything as I notice it. <3


	4. The Clash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Fight Night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to write action scenes?

"Kids?" Artemis moved to stand in front of Red Hood, glaring Deathstroke down. She called her axe silently and held it in her left hand. "Listen to me well, little man. I am _done_ being patient and playing Luthor's games. I am here to get Bizarro back and you are going to regret getting in my way."

Deathstroke laughed again, unsheathing his sword. "I might have to thank Luthor for this job. This is going to be fun, Amazon."

"Get Bizarro," Artemis ordered the little one. "I will take care of this."

"Sure?" Red Hood asked, hesitating.

"Don't insult me." Artemis stepped towards Deathstroke, sneering at him. "I am more than enough to handle this one."

"We'll see," Deathstroke replied. His head turned to follow Red Hood as the little one started to move out from behind her. "Sorry kid, but you aren't getting through me."

"You're defending this area?" Artemis grinned savagely. "Excellent, I have always preferred being the aggressor."

She knew without testing it that her right arm was not up to the task of bearing the weight of her axe. Instead, she adjusted her grip on it with her left and sent it spinning towards Deathstroke. The mercenary leapt out of the path of her weapon. The axe went sailing down the hall and embedded itself in the far wall. Artemis closed the distance to Deathstroke and met his sword with her own.  

Artemis bared her teeth in a snarl as their blades clashed. Deathstroke was stronger than a normal human; stronger than she had expected, even. With her dominant arm injured, it made her blood sing at the challenge. She brought her knee up in a feint. Deathstroke pulled away, dodging easily. She followed him back, their swords clashing together. Out of the corner of her eye, Artemis saw Red Hood moving forward, along the far wall. Artemis changed directions, pushing forward in a flurry of blows. Deathstroke met her strikes and backtracked. It put more distance between them and Red Hood, lingering behind with his gun held ready.

Deathstroke was allowing her to control their fight. Not for a moment did Artemis think she had the upper hand.

Their swords clashed again. Deathstroke brought his leg up into a kick, aimed towards her weakened right side. Artemis jerked to the side to avoid most of the blow but held her position, keeping Deathstroke focused on her. She glanced past his shoulder, shifting her hand on her sword just slightly.

Red Hood took the shot. It echoed through the corridor. Deathstroke fell back, enhanced enough even to dodge a bullet. Artemis followed, swapping her sword to her right hand and swinging at Deathstroke as he dodged the little one's follow up shots. Deathstroke landed halfway down the corridor.

Her axe, following her call, had ripped itself free from the wall and was there to meet him.

Deathstroke didn't glance behind him, just spun to the side as her axe sailed through the space he'd been. Artemis leapt forward, grabbing it in her left hand and bringing both axe and sword down. Deathstroke blocked the blows with his own sword, but was momentarily pinned, one knee hitting the ground. Artemis would not be able to hold him for long.

But she could hold him long enough.

Red Hood's footsteps echoed through the hall as he dashed past their fight and turned down the end of the corridor.

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that," Deathstroke said, the force he was using to push back against her pin suddenly increasing and making Artemis take a step back. He took the opportunity to break away from her, abandoning their fight to pursue Red Hood.

Artemis shook her right arm out with a grimace and followed.

Deathstroke was faster than her. Much faster. It made her grit her teeth. If Red Hood was not prepared—

The ground beneath her feet shook. Artemis skid to a halt. Ahead of her, Deathstroke was engulfed in the roaring flames of an explosion that filled the entire corridor.

Artemis smirked. Somehow, the little one had gotten his C4 back.

There was enough smoke in the aftermath to obscure her vision and make the air thick enough to choke on. Artemis pushed through, moving forward despite the destruction and the ominous creaking from the walls and ceiling that meant the structural integrity of the corridor had been compromised. She had never been one to back away from anything.

Emergency lights had lit up the hall beyond the damage of the explosion, casting everything in an eerie green light.

"Little one?" She narrowed her eyes at a blurry figure she could just make out beyond the field of smoke.

Artemis heard the sound of a blade through the air and jumped back, grimacing as a creaking shudder came from above. The hall flooded with fluorescent light, revealing Deathstroke, head caked with blood and mask missing, sword in one hand. Beyond him she could see Red Hood, fiddling with the wiring inside an open panel in the wall. Another security door blocked the way.

"I wondered if you had bite like your big brother," Deathstroke said, with a glance back towards Red Hood. "That little stunt could've taken out your friend there."

Red Hood turned around, flame dagger in hand. "Collateral damage happens, but Artemis is pretty tough."

Deathstroke laughed. "You are the black sheep, aren't you? Quite the little piece of work. No wonder Talia seems so fond of you."

There was a slight tightening in Red Hood's stance, but he betrayed no other reaction to the words.

Red Hood's hand twitched. Artemis threw herself to the side just as another explosion took out the wall to Deathstroke's left. The ceiling collapsed inward, with a soft whine as the last of the supports failed to hold. Artemis had just enough time to throw her sword, sending it flying end over end through the air, right past Red Hood's shoulder and into the security panel, making it spark and short out. One of the support pillars landed across her legs, pinning her to the ground.

"I needed that panel," Red Hood said, once the dust settled.

Artemis snorted, grimacing as she tried to pull herself free. "Well, I needed my legs."

Red Hood turned and pried the sword out of the panel. "Is there a reason you threw this instead of dodging like a normal person?"

"I'd have liked to see you dodge that," Artemis said, grimacing as a sharp spike of pain flared up her ankle when she pulled on it again. "He's not after me, little one."

"What?"

She didn't have time to reply. Deathstroke burst out of the rubble of the collapsed ceiling, sword pointed at Red Hood and moving at superhuman speed. Red Hood barely had time to put Artemis’ sword up and parry. Artemis turned her attention to freeing herself as the clash of swords echoed in her ears.

Red Hood was good, but he was also carrying an injury and Deathstroke was enhanced. The little one would need her assistance if they had any hope of defeating Deathstroke.

There was a cry that made her head jerk up as Deathstroke shoved Red Hood backwards into the security door. A blow to the helmet cracked it back against the door and seemed to leave the little one dazed. Deathstroke held the blade of sword level just under Red Hood's chin. With a growl, Artemis gave one final jerk of her leg and freed herself, ignoring the flare of fire up the length of her ankle and scrambling to her feet.

There was a blur of movement from the ceiling and Deathstroke jerked back, hissing and wrenching his sword hand away. The mercenary swapped his sword to his left hand and held his right up, turning it back and forth and examining the small metal weapon embedded through it.

Nightwing rose from the crouch he'd landed in, standing firmly between Deathstroke and the little one. "Even try to touch him again, Slade, and I'll cut your hand off. Then we'll see how fast you can really regenerate."

Deathstroke barked a harsh, gruff laugh. "Well, well. Looks like one little bird hasn't flown quite so far from the nest after all. You going to make this interesting for me, kid? You always get so vicious when protecting your own."

Another flash of movement out of the corner of Artemis' eye and then Donna Troy was at her side, reaching out to steady her.

Deathstroke glanced back at the two of them briefly before dismissing them in favor of Nightwing. Artemis flexed her fingers, letting them tingle with the beginning of the call for her axe. Beside her, Donna shook her head.

"Go with Red Hood," Diana's sister said quietly. "Nightwing and I will handle Deathstroke."

Artemis snorted. "I do not need your assistance."

"Your friend does," Donna said, pointedly. "You have more important priorities than this battle, Artemis."

She scowled, but conceded the point with a nod. She tested her ankle carefully to make sure it wouldn't buckle and then strode to Red Hood's side. He'd not moved away from where he'd been backed against the security door and held himself tense and guarded.

"Step aside," Artemis told him. "I will get the door."

Red Hood gave a stiff nod and pushed himself out of the way, reaching up to remove the helmet. A crack ran up the back of it from where it had impacted with the door. Jason grimaced at it and dropped the helmet to the floor. His face was still covered with the red domino mask that Nightwing had given him before they had left Bludhaven behind.

Artemis kicked out at the security door. Unlike the floors above, this security door was thicker and reinforced, withstanding two kicks from her before giving on the third, warping under the strain and flying off the hinges. She turned to Jason. "Let's go."

Jason cast one long look back to where Deathstroke had engaged Nightwing and Troia before nodding.

Together, they ran through the door into the dark passageway beyond.

***

The underground complex was several times larger than the building it was built under. The hallway twisted and turned, growing ever larger and wider the deeper they ran into the complex. There were no doorways, no branching paths. Just one long corridor that seemed to be going down, deeper into the earth.

Why Luthor had built the complex like this, Artemis could not fathom.

She could see far enough ahead to notice a large doorway at the end of the passage, already open as if in invitation. She slowed to a stop on instinct, jerking a hand out to catch Jason by the arm and make sure he stayed behind her.

"Looks welcoming." Jason shook her off and strode ahead, right through the doorway. "Let's take a look around."

Artemis caught up, shaking her head. "Have you ever exercised caution a single day of your life?"

"Not lately."

The room they had entered was cavernous, lit with the same eerie green emergency lighting that Jason's explosions had triggered on. It was filled, wall to wall, with containment tanks similar to the one they had originally found Bizarro in. All of them were empty.

Artemis hissed in a breath through her teeth. "How many did he make?"

"Enough to fill this place several times over," Jason replied, voice flat and grim.

Behind them, metal creaked as the door begun to swung closed behind them. Jason did not so much as glance behind them, so Artemis remained where she was, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, look," Jason said. "Another trap."

"How exactly is he going to top Deathstroke the Terminator?" Artemis muttered, clenching her right hand into a fist and grimacing. It was still not completely right. She healed fast, but being forced to put it to use too soon was not allowing her the necessary time to recover. "Stay behind me, little one."

"I'm not actually helpless, you know." But he sounded amused and fell into step slightly behind and to her right, covering her weak side.

Artemis turned her attention to the opposite end of the laboratory. There was another door there, and this one remained one and waiting. It was clear which direction they were being herded. "What does Luthor even hope to accomplish? Is he trying to kill us or move us?"

Beside her, Jason shrugged, sliding his gun out of its holster with one hand while the other rested on the flame dagger's sheath. "Let's find out."

Their footsteps echoed through the empty lab. It had clearly been abandoned in a hurry, broken glass and papers strewn about the ground. They were several feet away from the door to what looked like another empty lab when the ground began to shake, the glass and papers disturbed by what sounded like the footsteps of something very large and very heavy. There was a mechanical whir and then a large, lumbering mechanical monster stepped into the doorway.

Artemis stared at it. "What in Hathor's name is that?"

"Giant robot, because why not?" Jason shrugged. "Looks a bit like one of Luthor's old suits he used to fight Superman in."

"Wonderful." Artemis sighed. "You don't happen to have more explosives on you?"

"I always have more explosives on me." Jason grinned, patting at one of his pockets. "Distract it, I'll go blow a hole in one of its feet."

"Congratulations, for once you have made a sound and reasonable plan." Artemis threw her left hand out, let the tingling spark run down her fingers as she felt the magic that bound her to her axe. "Mistress, to me!"

The robotic monster moved forward with a mechanical grind, shooting one hand towards her with impressive speed. Artemis brought her axe up to meet it, letting weapon and robot clash and spark. Jason disappeared from her sight. She hoped his sabotage would be swift. The monster was just as strong as Jason had implied, equaling the force that Bizarro had used against her while he'd been under Black Mask's control.

The whistling of displaced air was her only warning for the second hand, which the machine whipped around behind her. She was too busy holding her ground against the other hand to be able to dodge. It clamped the second hand around, clutching her between the two in a tight grip. Artemis dropped her axe and let it hit ground before the monster ended up crushing her into it. Her right arm thrummed with pain as she was squeezed within the hands.

"I'll get you in a second," Jason called.

The monster lifted her and then Artemis saw the little one, behind the mechanical feet and working quickly, beneath its notice.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The voice came from deep within the other room, and all at once the cavernous area was illuminated in bright, florescent light to reveal Lex Luthor himself, standing on a raised platform in the second laboratory. Behind him was another containment tank filled with green liquid. Suspended within it was Bizarro, eyes closed but at least otherwise appearing unharmed. Artemis clenched her teeth and struggled, attempting to free herself, but the mechanical hands holding her prisoner would not budge.

Jason stood up straight, glaring at Luthor. "You'll be lucky if I leave you in one piece, let alone your robot."

“Pale imitations of Batman and Wonder Woman here to rescue a pale imitation of Superman,” Luthor said. “I suppose I shouldn’t even be surprised.”

"I'm fairly certain you were expecting us, actually," Artemis said through gritted teeth, as the mechanical monster squeezed her tighter and turned, beginning to amble forward, bringing her closer to Luthor. Jason was herded into the room, having to move forward n order to avoid being crushed beneath the robot's mammoth feet. Artemis could see Luthor fiddling with something in his hands—possibly the controls to the robot. The machinery of Man's World was not generally capable of cognizant thought, although Artemis had seen stranger things.

Once Luthor brought the robot to a stop he placed aside the controller on a raised dais on the platform and turned his attention to Jason.

The little one had pulled his gun on Luthor and was moving closing, stepping up onto the platform.

"So, you're the one who ripped apart Black Mask's little kingdom," Luthor said, putting his hands in his pockets. He seemed almost pleased.

"I had help," Jason replied, gun not wavering. "And you're the one who's running around pretending to be a good guy."

"We have that in common, I think," A smirk tugged at Luthor's lips. "You certainly do use some unconventional methods for a member of your...family."  

"And you used some unconventional methods to get my attention." Jason's eyebrows drew into a frown. "Ever heard of a phone?"

Luthor barked a laugh, turning his back and approaching Bizarro's containment tank. "If I'd only wanted to talk to you, I might've considered it. But I had a dual purpose and you, I think, would not have taken my calls without a show of force."

Jason snorted. "So you kidnapped Bizarro."

"He belongs to me," Luthor said easily, shrugging. "Even if I had this entire facility decommissioned and that pathetic gangster stole my property, that doesn't change the fact that it's mine. I really must thank you for taking down Black Mask. It saved me the trouble of risking my good reputation."

"Bizarro doesn't belong to anyone," Jason bit out. Artemis didn't have the right angle to see his expression well, but she could hear the spark of temper in his voice. "Let him go."

Luthor turned back to face Jason. "At the moment, I'm more interested in you than this creature."

Jason's chin rose. "Me?"

"Or rather, what you know." Luthor's posture remained relaxed, but something in the air changed, became charged. Artemis tensed and renewed her struggles against the grip containing her. The mechanics creaked and whirred, but nothing gave. Not yet, anyway. She would not give up.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Luthor." Jason didn't take his eyes off Luthor, but he nodded to the tank. "Just let Bizarro go and maybe I won't shoot you."

"You hacked Black Mask," Luthor said, ignoring the little one's threat. "Don't play stupid with me, boy. I'm no fool. I know what you did. You took apart Black Mask's empire so thoroughly that even if he managed to get his mind back he'd have nothing left. What little remains I'm sure you've accounted for and are in control of—Batman had always had a blind spot when it came to what the Red Hood does in Gotham's underworld."

"I gave up the crime boss gig," Jason replied. "Too many hours, not enough perks."

"But I'm sure you still pull some strings." Luthor glanced back towards Bizarro. 'Black Mask bit off more than he could chew, but I'm not Black Mask."

"You monologue just like him." Jason sneered. "Get to your point, Luthor. I'm losing patience."

At least, Artemis thought wearily, he'd managed to keep his temper in check. She jerked her elbow into the side of the cold metal surrounding her, hearing it warp and dent, but not give. She hissed a sigh.

"You know what Black Mask took from me," Luthor said to the little one, suddenly intense. "You know _everything_ he took from me."

"Maybe," Jason said, clearly unwilling to admit it, but Artemis knew. There was a tiny stick of data he'd kept when he'd destroyed every piece of information on Black Mask's servers. He'd covered his tracks and then after they'd left Gotham he'd made sure that anything Black Mask had been keeping off-shore had been similarly dealt with.

"You haven't done anything with it yet," Luthor said, with a hint of curiosity.

"I had no reason to take you down," Jason replied. "Not before you took Bizarro."

"No, not that." Luthor moved closer, ignoring the gun still held unerringly level with his head. "There's something far more important than my currently white and shiny reputation, Red Hood. I've been looking, and the trail ends with you. You're protecting that secret when you could've informed the entire Justice League and brought them down on my head."

"I like the leverage," Jason replied. Everything Artemis knew about the little one told her he was lying through his teeth. Something tickled at the back of her mind, what he'd said to her about the data. Something they had to deal with, he'd said.

Luthor hummed, stared at Jason in silence for a moment before turning away. He stared up at the tank where Bizarro was suspended. “This is what happens when you clone a full-blooded Kryptonian, you know. They start out perfect, and then degrade into this…disappointment. Years of research, of tweaking the process, and we haven’t figured out what causes it. We added human genetics to stabilize them, but we needed more than a little to get a stable product. Much more.”

“So what?” Jason asked, inching closer. “You’re going to get rid of him because he’s not perfect?"

“Removal of the evidence,” Luthor agreed, turning around.

"I'm not letting you do that," Jason said. "And you know I won't. You put minimal effort into killing us, you brought us here on purpose."

"Minimal?" Artemis echoed, incredulously. "I"ll show you minimal, little one."

"Come on, Arty, you're an Amazon," Jason replied. "Toughen up."

She spluttered. "No one hires Deathstroke the Terminator to _not kill people."_

"Actually they do," Luthor interjected. "The best of the best means he's unlikely to do it by accident. I only needed Red Hood incapacitated." Luthor turned to her, shrugging. "Well, you he would have killed. I don't particularly care about your fate."

"I will rip your head from your shoulders and let Bizarro have it as a trophy." Artemis hissed as her struggles loosened the hold of the metal grasp around her slightly, letting her slip down on an awkward angle, catching her right elbow on something within the confines of her prison.

"So you would have been annoyed if that stunt with the elevator had killed me?" Jason asked, quirking an eyebrow. "That one was a bit risky."

"I would have been minimally annoyed," Luthor said. "I don't particularly want a war with Batman at present. I have a vested interest in maintaining my reputation."

“Guess it’s too bad I recorded our entire conversation then, huh?” Jason fished something out of his pocket with the hand not holding the gun, waving it in the air and pressing a button. Luthor's voice, distorted and tinny but recognizable, came from the device, playing back part of his monologue. Jason tucked the device away again and nodded towards the containment tank. “Let go of my friends, Luthor.”

“You know what I like most about you? About you and your ‘family’?” Luthor asked conversationally. “I have the power to take down aliens and goddesses,” he gestured to Bizarro in the tank and Artemis, contained, “but one boy with a gun and a tape recorder ruins all my plans. Irony at its finest.”

"It's digital," Jason said. "No one uses tape anymore."

Luthor huffed. "Amusing child. Very well." He took the controls to the robot and pressed a button. Artemis found herself dropping to the ground. She landed in a crouch and straightened, glaring at Luthor. The man ignored her, turning to the containment tank and pressing something on the side of it. The green water began to drain away.

Jason's head turned to watch the containment tank. His gun remained aimed, but Artemis hurried up next to him on the platform, lest Luthor try to take advantage of his distraction. Something was not right.

"Arty, get Bizarro." Jason stepped toward Luthor again. "What are you planning? What's stopping me from taking my team and destroying your reputation anyway?"

"Deathstroke is currently engaging Nightwing and Troia," Luthor replied, smirking as the little one tensed up. Artemis looked between the two of them and the tank as the water level continued to slowly lower. Bizarro's eyes remained firmly closed, but Artemis could see his chest rise and fall. It was reassuring.

"They can handle Deathstroke." Jason's voice did not sound completely convinced.

"Maybe," Luthor conceded. "But I have something that will definitely tip the odds in his favor. What will it be, Red Hood? You have your team back, is ruining my reputation worth your brother? Your friend?"

Jason lowered the gun. He dug one hand into his pocket and retrieved the recording device and held it up. "Call him off first."

Luthor tapped at his ear. "Your mission is complete, Deathstroke. Leave them unharmed." Leaning over, Luthor clicked another button on the dais, bringing up a screen which showed a security feed. On it were Deathstroke, Nightwing and Troia, mid-fight. As they watched, Deathstroke paused for a moment before jumping back. He sheathed his sword and turned, running down the corridor and leaving Nightwing and Troia behind. "Is that sufficient?"

Jason crushed the device in his hand.

"A pleasure doing business with you," Luthor said. "Since I am not a stupid man I'm going to assume that you have another copy of that recording. I'd destroy it if I were you. I am not an enemy to trifle with."

"Just go before I shoot you," Jason replied.

Luthor laughed and turned to leave. "Remember that I'll be keeping eye out, Red Hood."

"That's not creepy at all," Jason muttered. He turned to the tank and stared up at Bizarro. "Hey, big guy. Time to wake up."

Bizarro stirred, but did not open his eyes. Artemis moved away to track Luthor as he walked away, down the platform and towards the back of the room. There was an elevator there. Luthor stepped inside, turning to face her. He smirked when he saw her watching, held something up in his hand and waved. The elevator door closed.

As if on cue, red lights began flashing and a siren blared, echoing uncomfortably through the loud room. The sound of shattering glass had Artemis swinging around. Bizarro was out of the tank, leaning over and clutching his ears. Jason had one arm around his shoulders in a flash, bending to speak quietly in Bizarro's ear.

"What is that?" Artemis demanded, moving to Bizarro's other side. She rested her hand on his shoulder.

Jason sighed. "Self-destruct. Luthor's set this place to blow."

Artemis tightened her grip on Bizarro, staring down at him. He was still dazed in the aftermath of his ordeal. "That's not good, little one."

"No," Jason replied. "It's not."

"We have no way of knowing how long we have, do we?"

Jason shook his head, grim.

Hathor, this day continued to get worse and worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is probably the most experimental thing i've done yet? balancing action scenes with my internal framing of the story as a ~five issue comic story arc may not have worked out as intended.


	5. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dust settles.

The siren was painfully loud, echoing through the room. Bizarro remained crouched low and brought his hands to cover his ears. Jason whispered soft encouragements while Artemis remained standing over her two teammates and glancing around the room, searching for any clue for when the facility might detonate. 

She glanced down at Jason. "I have a problem with what you told Luthor." 

Jason didn't look away from Bizarro, running a hand up and down his back. "What part?" 

"You called us a team." Artemis squeezed Bizarro's shoulder. "Are we a gang or not, little one?" 

Jason's lips twitched and he shot her a look and rolled his eyes. His attention returned to Bizarro as the Kryptonian slowly pulled his hands away from his head.

Bizarro's shoulder tensed under her hand and then he was straightening up to tower over both her and the little one. He blinked down at them and smiled, wide and sweet. "Bizarro knew Red Him and Red Her would come." 

"Of course," Jason replied, swallowing. "We'd never leave you behind." 

Artemis nodded. Her head jerked around as the rapid sound of footsteps approached from the other room. Nightwing and Troia appeared seconds later, disheveled but uninjured. They approached the platform quickly, Nightwing immediately going to Jason's side while Donna came to stand beside Artemis, knocking their shoulders together with a grin. 

"You look like you had some fun without us," Donna said, with a nod towards the still and silent robot behind them. 

Artemis glared at it for a moment. "It didn't even have the grace to bleed." 

"We have to get out of here," Nightwing said, looking around the room. One of his hands latched onto Jason's jacket. Jason frowned at it briefly before turning his attention back to Bizarro. "Deathstroke just left halfway through our fight—was Luthor here?" 

"He went through there." Artemis pointed over to the elevator. 

"It's probably locked down," Donna said. "I'll check anyway." She started running over towards the elevator. 

Bizarro looked down at the little one, reaching out with one finger to gently touch one of the bruises on Jason's face. "Red Him hurt." 

"It's not bad," Jason said, with a quick glance at Nightwing, who'd moved closer at Bizarro's words. "I'm fine. Let's just go." 

There was a shriek of metal from the elevator doors. Artemis turned to see Donna prying them open and peering up into the shaft. "We can fly up through here," she called back. 

"It's probably the fastest way out." Nightwing looked up at Bizarro. "You good to fly?" 

"Bizarro help." Very carefully Bizarro wrapped one arm around Jason's waist and picked him up, holding him securely under his arm like an unruly child. Artemis took two steps back lest he consider helping her next, but Bizarro moved towards Nightwing instead. "Bizarro carry Red Him and Blue Him." 

"Wait, not yet—" Nightwing cut off as Bizarro lifted him off his feet and tucked him under his other arm. Nightwing sighed. "Yeah, sure. Thanks, Bizarro." 

"Blue Him am welcome." 

Artemis smirked, following in Bizarro's wake as he made his way over to the elevator where Donna was waiting. Her fellow Amazon grinned as she caught sight of Nightwing and Jason's predicament.

"Well, that's the boys taken care of," Donna said, stepping aside to let Bizarro peer up into the elevator shaft. "That leaves you with me, Artemis." 

"I can hardly contain my joy," Artemis replied, but allowed Donna to slide an arm around her waist and pull her close against her side. 

Bizarro went first, stepping into the shaft and ascending, slower than his normal speed but steady enough. Donna followed second, and Artemis wrapped her good arm around Donna's shoulders to distribute her weight better. Being carried in flight was always an unnerving experience. Artemis did not like the lack of control it gave her. 

The sound of the siren grew dimmer as they ascended, until it could barely be heard at all. Bizarro reached the top of the elevator shaft and kicked out at the doors, sending them crumpling inward like cardboard instead of solid steel. He carefully moved through the hole he'd made and gently placed the boys down. 

Donna landed behind him and Artemis moved away, looking around the hall they found themselves in. 

"It's the ground floor," Nightwing said. "We need to get out before this place collapses when the underground facility self-destructs." 

They reached the front exit of the building quickly, the security doors remained disabled and the corridors empty of people. A crowd of workers were huddled outside, pointing at the building while emergency vehicles flashed their lights and LexCorp security teams set up a perimeter. 

"Oh boy," Nightwing said. "I see camera people." He ducked away from the front door, dragging his little brother behind him. 

"Publicity or death," Artemis said, rolling her eyes. "Take your pick." 

"Roof exit," Jason said, pulling away from Nightwing and starting back down the corridor. "We probably have time." 

Nightwing nodded and followed after his brother. 

"Why must they always pick death," Artemis muttered. 

Donna laughed. "Luthor's smart. He'll have charges set up to collapse the underground facility and leave the building above intact. He'll wave the whole thing off as problems with underground pipes or something similar. His teams have the whole area locked down and no one will ever find out the truth. The boys are right, we have time." 

Artemis shook her head. "All this to avoid a camera." 

Despite her complaints, going to the roof only added a few minutes to their exit. The ground did not start shaking until they were well clear of the building and the bystanders. They gathered on the rooftop of a taller building down the street, watching the emergency vehicles and LexCorp personnel. 

"Mission accomplished," Nightwing said, one hand held up to his communicator. They were working now that they were free of the building. Artemis' crackled slightly in her ear. Nightwing's other hand found its way back to his brother's shoulder and stayed there, despite the little one's exaggerated huff of annoyance. "Check in, team." 

"You want the bad news or the worse news?" Arsenal asked. 

"Oh boy," Nightwing said. "Let's get it over with. Both at once. I can take it." 

"Is Jaybird there?" Arsenal asked. 

Artemis turned and raised her eyebrow at the little one. 

Nightwing's hand tightened on his brother's shoulder. "He's off comms, the helmet got damaged again. Why?"

"Look, I like explosions as much as the next guy, but tell him that when he makes his own explosives and calls it 'adding a little kick', that I do not expect to have my life flash before my eyes from the result." Arsenal's voice rose steadily through the tirade. Artemis could hear the Flash laughing across the comms.. "That little shit." 

"I told you," the Flash said. "You were standing too close. It's not his fault you burnt your own eyebrows off." 

"I know the perfect distance," Arsenal said. "Nightwing, tell your little brother I'm going to kick his ass the next time I see him." 

"No need," Jason said as he finished adjusting the comm Donna handed to him in his ear. "I heard. And you couldn't take me down if you had superpowers and your eyebrows back, Arsenal. I've told you like ten times that you stand too close to your explosions. Maybe now you'll pay attention." 

"Enough." Nightwing tightened his grip on Jason's shoulder. "What else? Flash?" 

"Superman's on his way to you," the Flash replied. "Our distraction ended up bigger than first expected—thanks, Hood, I took photos of the eyebrow-less wonder here—so Supes turned up for the assist. We distracted him as long as we could." 

"I can't believe you didn't open with that," Nightwing said, putting one hand to his forehead. "Thanks for the update. Get out of there. Tempest and Omen?" 

"Getting coffee a few buildings down from LexCorp." Tempest gave a disdainful sniff. "It remains disgusting, Omen, it doesn't matter what kind you get me." 

"Security started a lockdown," Omen said. "We got out clean. Meet you at the jet." 

Nightwing tapped the comm and sighed. He turned to Jason. "Custom C4?" 

"You're the one who gave it to him," Jason said. "It's not my fault." 

Nightwing opened his mouth to reply but paused, shifting on his feet as a figure appeared in the sky, approaching with great speed. "We have company." 

Bizarro took one look and inched his way behind Artemis, hunching himself over in an attempt to hide behind her. Artemis folded her arms and glared at Superman as he pulled to a stop, hovering over them. He focused immediately on Nightwing.

"Does your father know where you are?" He demanded, arms folded across his chest and radiating disapproval. 

Jason snorted. "Do you know where your son is?"

Superman blinked, looking taken aback. "He's at home." 

"You sure?" NIghtwing laughed, with an edge of underlying tension. "He is friends with Robin, after all." 

Jason's expression twisted and he pulled away from Nightwing, moving over to stand beside Bizarro. 

"Nightwing, what is your team doing here?" Superman's eyes flicked briefly over Artemis and her teammates, but he made no comment on them. Even Bizarro got no more than a cursory glance and a slight frown. 

"Just finishing off an operation." Nightwing shrugged, posture loose and easy and utterly false. 

"There's going to be fallout from that building Arsenal and Flash destroyed," Superman said. "What exactly were you kids thinking, going after Lex Luthor?" 

"Kids?" Donna put her hands on her hips. "I think you must have mistaken us with the Teen Titans, Superman. They're in San Francisco." 

Artemis smirked, turning her back on the exchange and focusing on Bizarro. 

From behind her, she heard Superman heave a sigh. "What do you think Batman  would think about this if I informed him?"

Glancing over, she saw Nightwing give Superman a grim smile. "What, you really think he doesn't already know?" 

It appeared that Nightwing and Troia would be enough to handle Superman. 

"We should get to the jet," Jason said, with a last, lingering glance back at Superman. "I'm ready to be out of this city." 

"You seem nervous." Artemis followed behind her teammates as they took the opportunity presented by Superman's distraction to leave the rooftop, descending down to the streets and making their way towards the designated meeting point. 

Jason continued glancing behind them, in the direction they'd left Nightwing and Troia with Superman. "Not here. You never know who's listening." 

"Bizarro want Pup-Pup." Bizarro's shoulders were still hunched, and his lips turned down into a pout. 

"I have him on the jet," Jason replied. "We wouldn't leave him behind, buddy." 

Bizarro perked up, lifting off the ground in a low hover. He looked down at the two of them. "Bizarro fly Red Him and Red Her to jet?" 

Jason glanced at her, eyebrow arched and smirk in place. 

Artemis sighed, shrugging. "Why not? I lost my dignity when Nightwing and Troia had to intervene in my fight."

"It was our fight," Jason said, hooking his arm over Bizarro's shoulder as the Kryptonian wrapped an arm around his waist. 

Bizarro grinned and held out his other arm for her. Artemis stepped forward and let him pull her against his side. It was easier, flying with Bizarro. He was large enough that she didn't feel quite so vulnerable. 

"You merely assisted," Artemis told the little one, raising her voice to be heard over the wind as Bizarro picked up speed. 

Jason laughed. He ducked his head close to Bizarro's ear and started giving him directions. 

One hundred feet above the ground, Artemis finally began to relax.

***

They were on the jet for all of five minutes before Jason had rooted through a bag he'd smuggled aboard and produced Bizarro's Pup-Pup. Bizarro took the toy gently and curled up with it in one of the seats, falling into a light doze. Artemis couldn't imagine that being forced unconscious and suspended in a vat was restful. She stood beside the seat and rested her hand against his shoulder. Jason put his back against the wall and slid to the ground, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. 

Tempest approached from the front of the jet, eyes flicking between the various small injuries they carried. "Let me fix you up a bit." 

Artemis nodded to Jason. "The little one is injured." 

An easy grin stretched across Tempest's face as he moved around Artemis and crouched next to Jason. "Hey, tadpole. You got anything worse than scrapes and bruises? I'm not exactly a master healer, here." 

Jason cracked his eyes open. "I'm fine." 

"Yeah? Nightwing says that a lot, too." Tempest held out his hands, which lit up with a glow of purple magic. "Are you okay with me helping out?" 

Jason nodded, eyes slipping shut again. "Knock yourself out." 

Artemis watched closely as Tempest placed one hand on Jason's injured shoulder and cupped his bruised cheek with the other. The glow of magic intensified as he worked. The purple magic was bright but calm, a contrast to the sharp, violent edges of Circe's red power. Standing near Tempest while he wielded his magic was soothing. Normally, any magic intense enough for Artemis to detect grated against her senses. 

Tempest shifted his hands every so often, moving from one small injury to the next and leaving clear, healed skin behind. When his right hand landed just over Jason's heart, a spark of red tangled briefly with the purple magic before dissipating. Tempest lifted his hand and stared at it. "Huh." 

Jason lifted his head from the wall and frowned at him. "What?"

"Nothing," Tempest said, shaking his hand out. He knocked his hand under Jason's chin lightly as he rose to his feet. "You really were fine. Nice job today, tadpole."

"One day I'll kill you for that name." Jason yawned, slumping back down against the wall. 

Tempest laughed, turning to Artemis. "Do you need any help?" 

Artemis shook her head, gaze fixed on the hand that Tempest was still flexing at his side. "I'm more durable than a human. Do not worry yourself." 

"Donna says that a lot, too." Tempest snorted and moved away. "She's usually not lying, not like these Bats." 

Arsenal and Flash were the next to arrive on the jet, grinning and shoving at each other as they climbed the ramp. They were a little worse for wear; Arsenal's hat was missing and he looked mildly singed, while there was a rip across the shoulder of Flash's suit. 

"There he is." Flash pointed at Tempest. "What an easy life you lead, Gillface—sipping coffee with Lilith while we're standing outside a burning building with Superman himself descending from the heavens to ask us what the fuck we think we're doing." 

"You're lying," Tempest replied. "Superman would never swear." 

"Well, he was definitely thinking it." Flash clapped Arsenal on the back. "You want to check out Harper here and make sure he didn't boil his brain away with his eyebrows." 

Arsenal's hand darted to his forehead, patting the singed but still present hair there. "I swear, every time you say that I check just to make sure." 

Tempest shook his head. "Sorry, Harper. My healing isn't that strong, I've yet to learn how to heal someone from their own stupidity." 

Flash laughed, ducking away from the swipe Arsenal made and disappearing. Artemis flinched at the feeling of contained lightning that filled the air as he sped off to the front of the jet. Artemis could just pick up the murmur of his and Omen's voices. 

Purple magic slid slowly across her senses as Tempest activated his magic and cupped Arsenal's face between his hands. A few seconds later it died away and only faint smudges of black soot remained. "You're fine, Harper." 

"Thanks. I'd tip my hat if it wasn't a smoldering pile of ash." Arsenal turned and grinned at her. "Good to see you in one piece, where's Jaybird?" 

"With Bizarro." Artemis pointed over to where Jason's shoulder was just visible behind Bizarro's bulk. "He's resting." 

"Guess I won't yell at him, then." Arsenal moved over to the wall, sitting down next to Jason. The little one turned his head and they started talking quietly together. 

"Well, that's everyone back except for Nightwing and Troia." Tempest moved towards to the ramp, flicking the fingers of his right hand back and forth. "They didn't leave with you three?" 

Artemis shook her head. "They were still...discussing things with Superman." 

Tempest pulled a face. "Not a conversation I want to be part of." 

"Should we be concerned?" Artemis frowned. "They seemed to have it under control." 

"If anyone can handle Superman it's those two." Tempest strode off down the ramp. Artemis hesitated, glancing back towards her teammates, but Bizarro was peacefully sleeping and Jason seemed relaxed in Arsenal's company. She followed Tempest out of the jet and onto the roof of the Star Lab facility they'd landed the jet. While the jet itself was invisible, Star Labs had a strong relationship with various superhero team and unlikely to cause problems if they happened to see vigilantes lurking on their rooftop. 

Artemis walked to the edge of the rooftop, staring out over the city. The comm in her ear crackled. 

"Nightwing, Troia?" Tempest asked. "Are you both okay?" 

"Heading back now." Donna's voice was tinny and muffled by wind. "Everyone else got to the jet okay?" 

"Everyone is fine and accounted for," Tempest replied. "Just waiting on you two." 

"Five minutes out." 

Artemis and Tempest remained waiting on the rooftop for Nightwing and Troia. The afternoon light was casting large shadows from the surrounding buildings and there was a faint shimmer around the jet as the technology rendering it invisible worked to maintain the illusion. 

Troia saluted as she appeared over the rooftop, dropping Nightwing to his feet. She landed beside Artemis. "Did we miss anything?" 

"Tempest returned Arsenal's eyebrows to normal," Artemis replied. 

"Garth!" Donna shook her head and punched Tempest lightly in the arm. "Wally better have kept those photos." 

"He went to the cockpit," Tempest said.

"I better go rescue the jet from him before he ends up piloting." Donna squeezed Tempest's shoulder and took off for the jet.

Nightwing stretched his arms over his head and sighed. "We good to go?" 

Tempest nodded. "Only minor injuries sustained, it looks like the day has been a solid win." 

"You and Lilith find anything in LexCorp we should be concerned about?" Nightwing stretched his leg out, grimacing. A thin cut ran down the length of it. 

Tempest made an aggrieved noise. "How about I give the mission report while I heal your leg?" He crouched down and reached for the injury. "It's like you fools are trying to turn me into a full time healer." 

"That would be convenient," Nightwing replied. "Thanks." 

"We didn't dig around much after LexCorp sent out their security teams to your locations." Tempest's hands were lit up again with his magic. Artemis could see the strain around his eyes that meant that he wasn't lying about being an unpracticed healer. She could sense the power from him, but channeling it to heal seemed to drain him. "They started a security lockdown and then your comms went dead. We decided it was prudent to get out while we still could." 

"Was Lilith able to monitor us after the comms went down?" Nightwing asked.

Tempest released his magic and straightened up. "Yes, she kept an 'eye' on you all." He frowned, looking down at his right hand. "She didn't notice the mage who put the spell on Red Hood, though. If I'd known you were dealing with one I'd have joined you." 

Nightwing, in the middle of testing his healed leg, froze. "What?"

Artemis clenched her teeth. 

"Maybe it was while you were separated?" Tempest suggested, looking between the two of them. "When I broke it I thought it was just residual magic from an offensive spell, but it seemed too benign and lingered. A tracker, I think." 

"A tracking spell." Nightwing crossed his arms. "Someone put a tracking spell on my brother?" 

Tempest held his hands up. "I broke it, I didn't get enough of a look at it to be sure what exactly it was. The magic was very powerful and frankly felt like cold algae." 

Nightwing turned to her, drawing himself up in a cold fury. "There wasn't a mage down there." 

"No, there wasn't." 

"This happened in Qurac?" Nightwing asked. "It had to have, except this is the first I'm hearing about it." 

"That's funny," Artemis said, stepping closer, "because I didn't think you were the little one's keeper." 

"I do not want to be in the middle of this," Tempest said, sounding resigned as he stepped in between them and held his hands out to keep them apart. "Both of you calm down." 

Nightwing ignored him, staring Artemis down. "Does Jason know?" 

" _ I _ didn't know." Artemis scowled, clenching her hands into fists. "Yes, he knows who the sorceress is. I didn't notice her placing a tracking spell and I am not sensitive enough to even Circe's magic to be able to detect something that is by nature designed not to be detected." 

Nightwing stepped back. 

Tempest turned and arched a brow at her, eyes wide. "Circe?" 

She grimaced. "Do not concern yourselves. She is mine to deal with." 

"Actually, I think I will concern myself," Nightwing said. "What the fuck does she want with Jason?" 

"I—" Artemis paused, thinking back to the warehouse, to the way Circe had laughed, like she'd been surprised "—I am not entirely sure." 

"I want to know everything you know about her." Nightwing's voice had gone quiet, most of the fury leeched away into determination. 

"No." Artemis drew herself up, raising her chin. "I will not. It is a waste of time. I told you, she is mine to deal with. And by deal, I don't mean what you and yours do, locking them up and praying they won't escape. I will deal with her. Permanently." 

"Okay, that's enough." Tempest shook his head, raising his hands between them again. "This is not a conversation that we want to be having in Metropolis, the city where Superman wouldn't even need to strain his ears to listen in." 

"You're right," Nightwing said quietly, clasping Tempest's arm as he walked by. "Let's get out of here. Artemis, we'll talk later." 

Artemis remained standing on the rooftop even after the two had disappeared inside the jet. 

"I assure you, we will not." 

***

She was not arrogant enough to think they wouldn't be able to track her, if she simply turned and left the rooftop. The Titans had an impressive roster, and Bizarro and the little one alone knew enough to hunt her down. 

But they did not know everything. 

"Mistress, to me." The bright spark of magic was familiar down her hand as she called her axe to her side. It was a heavy and warm weight in her hand, singing with power. Artemis turned it over in her grip. The Bow of Ra was still important, but she had a more pressing quest to start. She held the axe out in front of her and closed her eyes, felt for the power that tied the axe to its altar, thousands of miles away, in the desert. In Bana-Mighdall. "Mistress, home." 

The magic was a rush of power, not her own but one she was practiced enough to channel. In between one second and the next, the city in Man's World was gone and Artemis was too. 

It didn't matter how fast the Flash could run, or how soon Omen would notice her mind was not nearby. Tempest would detect her magic, and Bizarro and the little one might eventually guess how and where she had gone. 

It was too late for them to stop her. 

Artemis opened her eyes on the shadowed altar in the quiet dead city of her birth, and smiled grimly. 

She had a new hunt to begin. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has commented and given feedback <3
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the ride!

**Author's Note:**

> Fandom tumblr is [here](http://lysical.tumblr.com). 
> 
> All feedback and comments are much appreciated :D


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